Riding out the Arab Spring
As uprisings topple rulers nearby, the Saudi state answers with vast spending at home, a ban on protests, troops for Bahrain's monarchy and support for the counter-revolution in Egypt.
- Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change — Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer and Stéphane Lacroix (eds.), Cambridge University Press (2015)
- Arab Spring — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd edition) — Madawi Al-Rasheed, Cambridge University Press (2010)
In February and March 2011, as crowds filled Tahrir Square in Cairo, King Abdullah announced spending packages worth roughly $130 billion on housing, salaries, unemployment benefits and religious institutions. Protests were banned, and calls for a “day of rage” drew few people outside the Shia Eastern Province, where demonstrations in Qatif continued for months and were met with arrests and deadly force.
- Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change — Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer and Stéphane Lacroix (eds.), Cambridge University Press (2015)
- Arab Spring — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change — Bernard Haykel, Thomas Hegghammer and Stéphane Lacroix (eds.), Cambridge University Press (2015)
- Arab Spring — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
2011 confirmed for the rulers, and for many citizens, that stability and generous state spending mattered more than political reform. The chaos that followed in Syria, Libya and Yemen is often cited by Saudis as proof that revolution brings ruin.