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Saudi Society and the State: Ideational and Material Basis
Abstract
This article considers religious, social, political, and economic dimensions of the Saudi-Wahhabi state imagination. Since the inception, the Saudi state has relied on two main pillars: the monarchy and Wahhabism, which have been in a symbiotic relationship. In time, the state imagination in Saudi Arabia has been determined and reconstructed by factors like Wahhabism, monarchism, rentierism, internal and international political and economic obligations, and modernization efforts imposed by being a “nation state.” Those factors made Saudi Arabia a sui generis state. The legitimacy of the monarchy has been ensured through tribalism and, on a larger scale, religion. Foreign aid, booties, oil revenues, and, on a rather insignificant scale, tax revenues have created a material infrastructure to build citizenship.
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To my mind, this is because of the Wahhabism's universalistic claims upon the entire Islamic world.
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Ironically, Saudis are well known for their strong yearning for technology since the country has sprouted and improved with the geological oil discoveries, and the same is true for the developments about water and other technological improvements. For more detail, see Fred H. Lawson, “Keys to the Kingdom: Current Scholarship on Saudi Arabia,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 43:4 (November 2011), 744.
One of the most referred groups when examining the historical roots of the Salafism.
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According to ICNL, more than half of the hundreds of CSO's in Saudi Arabia are charities, and most are government-affiliated. “Civil society remains underdeveloped, largely because it has been subject to a restrictive legal framework and capricious implementation that allowed some organizations to form and register, but not others. This restrictive environment persists despite Saudi society's cultural and social heritage, which includes religious laws that call for civic work in various areas,” see ICNL, “Civic Freedom Monitor: Saudi Arabia,” (July 2017), www.icnl.org/research/monitor/saudiarabia.html, accessed September 8, 2017.
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