According to James Gelvin in his book The Arab Uprisings, there are more
monarchies in the Arab world than any other region. In this region there are also more monarchies
that not only rule, but also reign over their nation. With Saudi Arabia being the oldest monarch
(1902) and Bahrain being the newest (2002), these monarchs have lasted. These three nations have gone through a lot
of trouble with the most recent being the Arab Spring. During the Arab Uprisings however, the three
kingdoms of Bahrain, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia were able to survive.
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| Bahrain Royal Coat of Arms |
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| Jordan Royal Coat of Arms |
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| Saudi Arabia Royal Coat of Arms |
Although
it wasn’t the first country to have an uprising during the Arab Spring, Bahrain
has had issues in the past before.
Bahrain has had its own uprising since the 1990s, long before other
countries in the Middle East. James
Gelvin says that the uprising in Bahrain stands out amongst all other due to
the fact that one, even though the government met the protesters’ initial
demands for reform with violence, the uprising took a decidedly antimonarchial
turn (Gelvin, 135). The second reason
the Bahrain uprising stands out is that its “manner of its suppression marked a
new strategy for mounting counterrevolution in the region” (Gelvin, 135). In an interview with Ahmed Mohammed for the
International Socialist Review, Ahmed said that Bahrainis took to protesting
because of King Al Khalifa, then emir.
Al Khalifa had promised his people that he would make Bahrain a kingdom
and the emir into a king. This would in
turn end the state of emergency law and a parliament would be instated. This was all done under a referendum in 2001. However, on February 14, 2002, the king
decided to take back his promise and announced that he was instilling a new
constitution that gave him all the power.
In 2011 Bahrain had another
uprising against the government, this was a continuation of the uprising that
had taken place before. Many thousands
of people took to the streets in protests in order to gain what they wanted
from their government. However, the
government would not give the people what they wanted. It is said that the reason the monarchy of Bahrain
survived the uprising is because of its strategy of repression (Gause, 10). It
is also said that the monarchy survived only because the citizens of Bahrain
viewed it as legitimate (Gause, 11). The
people of Bahrain did not want to put an end to the monarch as an institution
but put an end to the monarch and the royal family as rulers. The people of Bahrain wanted “the people to
be the source of all authority” (Gause 11).
Since the dramatic turn in Bahrain, the dynamic has remained the same, thus
the monarchy has survived.
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| King Al Khalifa |
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is ruled by an
individual king and become a kingdom in 1946.
According to the Middle East Policy Council, Jordan was watched closely
during the events of the Arab Spring in 2011.
While the uprising in Jordan did not have a mobilized en masse or was
there any interest to culminate in calls for an ousting of the monarch there
was still an uprising. Jordan’s uprising
was more done on the social media scale, mainly blogs and very small, contained
and nonviolent protests in the capital Amman (Middle East Policy Council). In comparison to most other countries that
had an Arab Spring, Jordan’s lack of large protests and revolution was deemed
unusual (Middle East Policy Council).
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| King Abdullah II |
The Kingdom of Jordan survived the uprising
because it never became a “full-fledged” constitutional monarchy in response to
the protests and demands for reform because of high gas and petrol prices. Due to this, King Abdullah remained in power
and has taken steps towards making a greater parliamentary power and democratic
reform in response from pressures below (Gause, 15). This in turn would secure his throne when all
republican leaders around were falling.
King Abdullah reacted very cautiously to the protests in Jordan and he
also fired his prime minister in February 2011 and also fired his replacement
in October 2011. While in two and a half
years of protest Jordan has seen five different prime ministers and six governments,
the monarch has remained. This proving
that the monarch of Jordan has survived the Arab Spring.
The Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia became a monarch in 1902 and has remained one ever since. The Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia has led to
the killing of protesters, and the arrests and shootings of key oppositional
clerics (Toby Matthiesen). During the
Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia, King Aziz relieved the governor and appointed
Prince Aziz as the new governor for the Eastern Province. According to Gause, the stability of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia isn’t due to the royal status, instead the monarch
remains intact because King Aziz has built a state that provides order for his
societies and benefits for enough citizens (Gause, 30). King Aziz has constructed political alliances
with domestic and foreign allies that provide support in times of crisis. This is all due to the fact that “both
state-building and coalition-building has been greatly abetted by oil” (Gause,
30).
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| King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz |
Another
reason that the monarch of Saudi Arabia has remained in power is due to the
fact that the Shi’a, which is the kingdom’s strongest mobilized group, is
neither large enough or unified enough to present a strong challenge to the
state (Winter, 7). Saudi Arabia is
unable to depoliticize or demobilize it’s Shi’a population, however, they do
have many tactics they can use to prevent the Shi’a from causing a major
challenge (Winter, 7). The regime was
also able to use three main strategies to keep the mass mobilization to a
minimum. The regime first came out with
a policy of minimal tolerance, which was extended beyond that of the kingdom’s
borders. The second strategy was the
construction of assistance programs, which prevented economic grievances from
forming. Lastly, some reforms were put
in place such as allowing women to serve in the Consultative Council. With these strategies, it helped to keep the
monarch in power and helped it survive the Arab Spring.
After looking at these three nations and their monarchies
throughout the Arab Spring, they did whatever they could to stay in power. The royal families were not ready to give up
their reign just because their people were at unrest and unhappy with the
government. Al Khalifa, Abdullah, and
Aziz worked hard to keep their citizens happy by throwing everything they had
at them. By doing what these monarchs
did, they were able to survive the Arab Spring.
The next question would be, how long will they last through the uprisings
due to the fact that some uprisings are still in play? There is still some unrest amongst the
citizens of Bahrain, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
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| Bahrainis Protest as the Pearl Roundabout |
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| Jordanians Protest about high gas prices |
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| Saudi woman protests by driving |
Works Cited
Gelvin, James L. "The
Monarchies." The Arab Uprisings: What Everyone Needs to Know.
New York: Oxford UP, 2012. 119-40. Print.
Zill, Zach. "Bahrain and
the Arab Spring." International Socialist Review 82 (2012):
n. pag. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. http://isreview.org/issue/82/bahrain-and-arab-spring
Qatar. Brookings Doha Center.
Brookings Foreign Policy. Www.brookings.edu. By F. G. Gause, III.
The Brookings Institute, 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Tobin, Sarah A. "Middle
East Policy Council." 19.1 (2012): 1-7. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. http://mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/jordans-arab-spring-middle-class-and-anti-revolution
Matthiesen, Toby. "Saudi
Royal Family Politics and the Arab Spring." The Foreign Policy
Group 14 Jan. 2014: n. pag. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. http://mideastafrica.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/01/14/saudi_royal_family_politics_and_the_arab_spring
United States. Department of
Defense. Foreign Military Studies Office.Fmso.leavenworth.army.mil. By
Lucas Winter. N.p., Feb. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/Jordan-Saudi-Arabia-After-Arab-Spring.pdf
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