Stability and the “Arab Spring”

Abstract

By utilizing a variety of internal and external survival strategies, the regimes in power, which were already labeled as anachronisms in the second half of the preceding century, have managed to maintain their stability. The political arrangements behind these autocratic states, however, are coming under growing pressure, with considerable sections of the population challenging the ruling elites. A balanced policy composed on the one hand of willingness on the part of sultans and emirs to open the political system in response to what the times require, and on the other hand the publics willingness to settle for half of its aspirations, can aid the monarchies in their battle for survival.