Ethnocracy in the Arab Gulf States: Oil Rent, Migrants and Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract

Ethnocracy in the Arab Gulf states (AGS) promotes stability in social and state governance by creating disparities between citizens and migrants. In general, migrants are considered to be a source of social unrest despite their significant contributions to the national economies of the AGS. The region, which is the world’s largest absorber of international migrants, is dominated by authoritarian regimes that have survived and persisted due to their strong ethnocratic policies despite the Arab Spring revolutions. Through data comparisons and a time series analysis of labour markets, this chapter explains the two main features of the AGS that build this framework of ethnocracy: oil revenues and the national division of labour.