The Political Culture of Leadership

Abstract

This book set out to answer four questions: What is the political culture of leadership in a tribal society like the UAE? What were the external factors that transformed the shape of personal rule? How were rulers able to shift so rapidly from egalitarian rule to a rule requiring hierarchy and authority? And finally, does a similar political culture exist today and if so how is it expressed?

I am like an old father who heads his family and takes care of his children. He takes them by the hand and supports them until they have passed through adolescence

—Shaikh Zaid April 25, 1977