Harmonizing Globalization and Traditionalism in the Rentier State: Exploring the Modernization of the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Scholars of oil-based rentierism otherwise dubbed as ‘the oil curse’, claim that the political systems of such countries and their leaderships cannot be taken as serious development focused agents. In a similar contention, proponents of western-style democracy support the idea that ‘sheikhdom’ leadership based on patriarchic inheritance is destructive to development, while yet another section of scholars claims that Islam, as a faith, is in general anti-development. In order to broaden the debate on this subject, this study uses the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a case of a country that has achieved a tremendous success in various development areas and contrary to the old view of the three types of critics mentioned here.

Keywords: Arabian Gulf, economic diversification, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), leadership, Middle East