ABSTRACT
The historical outcome of the rentier state experience in the 1950s and 1960s was the appearance of what we term the phenomenon of ‘the authoritarian state’, which has embraced the whole region and possibly the whole of the Third World during the present period.1 However, before we undertake the study of this phenomenon and its local manifestation, we must mention that the policies of the rentier state have unleashed widespread opposition and resistance move ments from both traditional and non-traditional power groups. These movements began to appear as a result of the policies of the rentier state itself, since these policies changed some of the foundations upon which the opposition and insurgent movements in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula countries relied.
