Public Policy in Gulf States

This open access volume focuses on the various processes of state formation and the significant role that organization, citizens, and institutions are coming to play in forming policy in the resource-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. As rentier states, they feature unique systems of governance and policy making. The Gulf region is employing unprecedented influence on international affairs and is a key player in the restructuring of the Middle East and North Africa post 9/11 and following the Arab Spring. The region has an increasingly vital role in the global contemporary system of international power, politics, and policymaking. And yet despite the recent rise of the Gulf Arab states to global power, notably Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, their policymaking remains under researched. This book pulls focus to their various processes of state policy formation. It considers these states’ social, political, and economic development, providing a comparative analysis of policy practices and results, citizens engagement, public-private partnership, human development and human capital, and provides analyses on foreign policy, sovereignty, security, and links to domestic politics. It shows the specific nature of governance relationships in the GCC and this how this is, in turn, affected by the specific nature of social capital and public opinion, as well as leadership and the culture of the business community in the GCC. These, the book suggests, pose challenges to public policy making and delivery in this region. Bringing together experts in public policy analysis, policy implementation and evaluation, governance, international affairs, public administration, public management, and other related social sciences from within and beyond the Middle East, this book is a vital text confronting the gap in the real mechanics of policymaking in the region.

This is an open access book.