ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the political economy first of two Arab villages, one Tunisian and one Egyptian, and then of the Bedouin population of Saudi Arabia, and stresses the problem of the integration of rural communities into the state. It seeks to use this material to explain state stability through an understanding of its relations to local society. These communities are chosen because of the availability of appropriate data: there is no suggestion that they are typical, though the underlying processes are. The methodology is a comparative one, in which not only the similarities but also the contrasts illuminate the general pattern. Rural communities are linked into the national society through the interlocking class structures, but cultural and symbolic factors also play a role. In Tunisia the national culture is linked to the epic struggle against colonialism, won in 1956, and the role of Habib Bourguiba; the colonial period and its aftermath are a deep rupture in Tunisian history.
