the Al Sauds themselves. The assumption of the throne last year by King Abdullah, who has embraced greater openness than his predecessor, has raised hopes. The new king is personally far more popular than the previous one. Yet Christian Louboutin sale
orms would undoubtedly be more effective if they were backed by a clear popular mandate. Most Saudis reckon it is premature to speak of democracy in their country; but there are myriad ways to emancipate citizens, from upholding the rule of law to making budgets more transparent and loosening the grip of security agencies over universities and the press. Instead of their old tactics of prevarication, slow Louboutin Shoes,
nsensus-building and co-optation, the Al Sauds should try a new one: putting trust in their people.
IMAGINE that Britain was known as Windsor Britannia, or Spain as Bourbon Iberia; that their royal families still ruled directly, with no messy elected bodies in the way; and that their members included not just the royal couple,Christian Louboutin Sandals, every newspaper felt obliged to print such choice items as this: “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, has sent a reply cable of thanks to Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector-General, thankinChristian Louboutin Pumps, the Crown Prince and all personnel of the armed forces for their congratulations to the King on the occasion of Eid al Fitr, marking the end
of the holy month of Ramadan, in the cable sent earlier to the King by the Crown Prince.” Surely a text message would have done.
Apologists describe Saudi majlises, those public receptions where princes listen to their subjects' pleas and panegyrics, as a form of “desert democracy”. In fact, they are stilted, staged affairs. Prince Waleed bin Talal, the king's nephew, is renowned for the charity dispensed at his weekly majlis. Yet the billionaire investor pays scant attention to the hundreds of supplicants who shuffle forward fo Christian Louboutin Boots,
perfunctory hearing, after which an aide often hands them an envelope of cash.
The surprising thing is how comfortable most Saudis seem to be with their ruling dynasty. Testy regionalism persists, for instance, among the Shia of the Gulf coast and the Ismailis along the border with Yemen, as well as among the proud old families of the Hijaz, the relatively cosmopolitan region around Mecca. But although its advocates would like more rights and less Wahhabism, they do nChristian Louboutin Shoes,
question the legitimacy of the Al Sauds.
King and country
One reason for this is that most Saudis have done pretty well under the family's rule. ThChristian Louboutin Boots,
ingdom's social peace may come at a high cost in personal freedom, but it compares well with the unrest in nearby countries. For all the talk of mismanagement and waste, Saudi Arabia has a decent infrastructure and some fairly efficient institutions. “In some autocratic regimes there is no good intention to improve things,” says one junior prince. “Here there was always a good intent, only the tools were sometimes weak.”
Besides, Saudis know that their country would not exist without the Al Sauds. Until theChristian Louboutin Shoes,
0th century, there had never been a state that covered similar territory. The prized Hijaz fell under the sway, successively, of rulers in Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Istanbul, who ignored the Arabian interior, or Najd, as worthless. King Abdul Aziz, the current king's father, built his kingdom through a mix of outright conquest, appeals to the faithful, strategic marriage and clever diplomacy. He and his hei
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