Reformers and the Rentier State: Re-Evaluating the Co-Optation Mechanism in Rentier State Theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (sup1) ◽  
pp. 46-64
Author(s):  
Jessie Moritz
Keyword(s):  
State Theory ◽  
Rentier State

Rentier Islamism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
The Political ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Islamist Movements

This book, using contemporary history and original empirical research, updates traditional rentier state theory, which largely fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements, by demonstrating the political capital held by Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While rentier state theory predicts that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened, this book demonstrates that ideology, rather than rent, has motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements in the wealthiest states of the region. It argues for this thesis by chronicling the history of the Brotherhood in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, and showing how the organization adapted to the changing (and often adverse) political environs of those respective countries to remain a popular and influential force for social, educational, and political change in the region. The presence of oil rents, then, far from rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.

scholarly journals On the Limits of Rentier State Theory: An epistemological Insight

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Elmekdad Shehab
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Social Contract ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
Arab Gulf ◽  
Arab Gulf States ◽  
Oil Crisis

For decades, The rentier state theory has provided the most popular explanations for the sociopolitical dynamics in the Arab Gulf states, however, due to the rapid transformations in the Gulf societies in recent years, the theory went under severe critiques especially after its failure to predict the emergence of a new Gulf social contract after the oil crisis of 2014. This essay has tried to shed the light on one of the missing dimensions of these critiques by arguing that this failure might have occurred because the rentier state theory adhered to an obsolete epistemological paradigm of modernity that was incapable of dealing with such a complex social phenomenon from the beginning. Also, seeking epistemic healing, the essay highlighted the most recent shift in the philosophy of science toward a complexity paradigm and referred to its potentials to exceed the limits of the rentier paradigm.

Rentier Islamism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Cultural Influence ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Individual Country ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Rentier States ◽  
Lasting Influence

This chapter comprises an extended, substantive conclusion to take into account individual country experiences and to compare these countries along common themes. In this final chapter, a new model is elucidated for understanding how Muslim Brotherhood movements influence government policies in the super-rentier states, which is called rentier Islamism. The chapter reprises the book’s critique of rentier state theory for its failure to appreciate the resiliency of ideological opposition to oil-wealthy regimes, who have tried various tactics to contain and suppress Islamism. The chapter concludes by predicting the lasting influence of the Muslim Brotherhood as exercising both political and cultural influence within the Gulf.

Politicians or Preachers?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Arab Nationalism ◽  
Popular Support ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

This chapter continues tracing the development of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. It focuses on the period of expansion of the Brotherhood after the fall of Arab Nationalism from the 1970s through the 1990s, with a view to how Ikhwan movements used their ties with governments and their social appeal to earn more popular support. It presents case studies of Brotherhood activities within Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE during this period to show that the forms adopted by Brotherhood movements in the super-rentiers, similar to Ikhwan elsewhere in the region, were dictated by the political opportunities available to them. Opportunities became increasingly available to Ikhwan branches in the Gulf with the fall of Arab nationalism, which had been the Brotherhood’s primary ideological rival. Contrary to the predictions of rentier state theory, Brotherhood groups managed to establish themselves even as super-rentier governments were expanding welfare packages to citizens throughout the 1970s.

A Dictionary of Politics in the Middle East

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arabian Peninsula ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Arab Spring

Over 300 entriesThis dictionary provides a useful overview of the wide array of political structures and systems that comprise the contemporary Middle East. From Turkey through Iraq and Iran, to the Arabian Peninsula and the states of North Africa, it includes up-to-date definitions of political organizations, key political figures, and important developments, as well as region-specific concepts such as Majlis, academic terms such as rentier state theory, and events such as the Arab Spring.It is an essential reference resource for students taking courses or modules in politics in the Middle East or broader subject areas such as politics, history, economics, and international relations with a specific focus on Middle Eastern politics.

RENTIER ISLAMISM IN THE ABSENCE OF ELECTIONS: THE POLITICAL ROLE OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AFFILIATES IN QATAR AND THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Rentier States ◽  
Islamist Movements

AbstractDrawing on contemporary history and empirical research, this article revises traditional rentier state theory, which fails to account for the existence of Islamist movements in states accruing substantial outside wealth. Rentier state theory expects that citizens of such states will form opposition blocs only when their stake in rent income is threatened. Examining the development of Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in two archetypal rentier states, or super-rentiers, in the Gulf—Qatar and the United Arab Emirates—this article shows that ideology rather than rent motivated the formation of independent Islamist movements. This research helps to break the causal link established by rentier state theory between oil rents and lack of politically relevant Islamist organizations. We find that the presence of oil rents, instead of rendering Islamist complaint politically irrelevant, shapes the ways in which Islamist movements seek to influence government policies.

Post-rentier Economic Challenges

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 210-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Volatile Oil ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Gulf State ◽  
Rentier States

The rentier states of the Middle East face a combination of political and economic challenges as they seek to reduce their reliance on volatile oil and gas revenues and diversify their economies. This article examines how the political economy of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states remains heavily dependent on the hydrocarbon sector and analyses the policy responses to the fall in world oil prices since 2014. Sections in the article examine the definitional aspect of rentier state theory, nature of the redistributive welfare state that developed in the 1970s in each Gulf State, and the political aspect of economic measures that seek to reform aspects of the distinctive political economy that has underpinned socio-political and economic stability for the past five decades.

scholarly journals Capital, Labor, and State

2015 ◽  
pp. 321-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Hanieh
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
World Market ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Global Capitalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
The World ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Impact

The Middle East’s pivotal position in a hydrocarbon-based global capitalism carries enormous ramifications for the region and the Gulf Arab states in particular. This chapter aims to present key debates associated with this transformation. It begins with an overview of the Rentier State Theory (RST). RST theorists foreground the impact of oil rents on Gulf states, drawing causal relationships between these rents and the characteristics of the Gulf’s political economy. The chapter turns to a critique of some of its core assumptions, notably its theorization of state and class. It argues that a more satisfactory understanding of the political economy of oil in the Gulf can be found through a return to the categories of class and capitalism, and a deeper appreciation of the ways in which the Gulf is located in the wider dynamics of accumulation in the world market.

No Taxation, No Representation?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney Freer
Keyword(s):  
Political Islam ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Rentier State ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Political Group ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
First Time

This chapter provides an extended literature review, bringing together for the first time the strands of scholarship related to rentier state theory and to political Islam in the Middle East. In so doing, it sheds light on gaps in the scholarship, in particular the denial in rentier state theory scholarship of the political role played by Islamist groups in such states and the lack of study of the Gulf states by scholars of political Islam. The chapter then gives a brief background on definitional aspects of Islamism, as well as a description and brief history of the Muslim Brotherhood itself, as the region’s most powerful Islamist political group.

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