ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses the challenges that apply to the Gulf Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia. In building their political societies, leaders of the Gulf Arab states began to face new challenges and demands for political reform. The transformation of these societies into modern, viable political entities has centered around the single question of how to maintain political development at an evolutionary, not a revolutionary, pace. Despite great economic and social advancement, political authority in Gulf states has remained vested in the person of the ruler and his family; the founding of modern polities has not eliminated the tribal source of legitimacy. Oil revenues and the expanding educational base have combined to create a new and diverse stratum of professionals, managers, administrators, adequately trained teachers, lawyers, army officers, pilots, skilled workers, electronics engineers and technicians, planners, corporate managers, and systems analysts. The Amman conference represented a turning point in Arab political thinking.