Feeling the Pulse of the Street: Socio-Cultural Demands and Regime Responsiveness in the Arab Monarchies of the Gulf

Abstract

In August 2021, statues of Aphrodite were removed from a Burberry shop by the Kuwaiti government after it received multiple complaints from citizens about the statue offending cultural and religious sensitivities. In December 2016, the Qatari government cancelled National Day events after local developments left the national population undesirous of celebrating. And in June 2011, after residents of Al Ain, Oman complained to a newspaper that nothing was being done to stop a goat herder using a local cemetery, an act they felt violated its sanctity, the municipality forced him to relocate. These examples prompt an important question: why, in response to citizen complaints, did the Kuwaiti, Qatari and Omani governments take action? While this question may seem simple, current Gulf and Middle Eastern scholarship and, indeed, wider political science struggle to provide an adequate answer because of their inattention to the place of popular socio-cultural contestation in state-society relations. Where the literature does investigate the socio-cultural, it does so either from: A state-centric perspective, which examines how regimes undertake nation-building projects and promote local cultural heritage through, for example, new museums, national days, and cultural villages; or, A citizen-centric perspective, examining how people enact, protect and propagate identities and heritages in their own lives and through their own actions away from the state, for example, through art, literature and fashion. This thesis adopts an alternative approach, however, by examining the nexus at which state and society meet - regime responsiveness to popular socio-cultural demands. Using Kuwait, Qatar and Oman as case studies, this thesis demonstrates both that Gulf citizens frequently make socio-cultural demands on their governments with an expectation of a positive response, and that in certain circumstances the Gulf monarchies implement or change socio-cultural policies to satisfy the demands of citizens to build support or ensure acquiescence and preserve their rule. It does so by applying the concepts of, one, authoritarian responsiveness, which holds authoritarian regimes actively monitor and respond to their citizens' concerns, and two, performance legitimacy, where a state's right to rule stems from the perceived output of the political system in satisfying the needs and aspirations of citizens. In answering why Kuwait, Qatar and Oman took action as a result of citizen concerns, this thesis illuminates the dramatically understudied dynamics of socio-cultural contestation and responsiveness in the Gulf states. However, it also makes broader contributions, not only to Gulf studies but also to the study of authoritarian states generally. One, it situates responsiveness as an integral dynamic of Gulf governance, enabling a greater understanding of regional state-society relations not as a static pattern of top-down rent distribution, but as a dynamic contest between ruler and ruled. Two, it expands our understanding of authoritarian responsiveness, which has yet to be extended to socio-cultural demand and response, and performance legitimacy, which has yet to be extended to socio-cultural policies and responsiveness Show more