ABSTRACT
Despite being one of the world's most water-poor nations, Jordan continues to allocate over 50% of its domestic water budget to the agricultural sector, which in turn contributes marginally to the nation's gross domestic product. To appreciate this sector's continued consumption of scarce water resources, it is essential to consider the social contract that arose during Jordan's state-building process. In the early years of state formation, the Monarchy used its water resources along with water policy to settle semi-nomadic and nomadic tribes along with Palestinian refugees, establish its legitimacy and security over society, generate revenue for the new state, and expand the regime's control over its borders. These policies resulted in the rise of powerful elites that have the capacity to secure their water consumption in the agriculture sector and obstruct attempts by governing institutions to implement more efficient demand management policies. Thus, Jordan's historical development process has contributed to the evolution of weak governing institutions that lack the capacity to impose more efficient water allocation and utilization. Policies that attempt to cut subsidies, increase prices, or impose more efficient use of water on the agricultural sector are seen as challenging state-society relations and hence, regime stability.
