The wages of oil: parliaments and economic development in Kuwait and the UAE

257 Pages·2016·2.293 MB·English

by  Herb, Michael

The Wages of Oil

The Wages of Oil
Parliaments and Economic Development
in Kuwait and the UAE
Michael Herb
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2014 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in
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Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2014 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herb, Michael, 1966– author.
The wages of oil : Parliaments and economic development in Kuwait
and the UAE / Michael Herb.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5336-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Democratization—Kuwait. 2. Democratization—United Arab
Emirates. 3. Kuwait—Politics and government. 4. United Arab
Emirates—Politics and government. 5. Petroleum industry and trade—
Political aspects—Kuwait. 6. Petroleum industry and trade—Political
aspects—United Arab Emirates. 7. Economic development—Political
aspects—Kuwait. 8. Economic development—Political aspects—United
Arab Emirates. I. Title.
JQ 1848.A91H47 2014
330.95357—dc23 2014022400
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible
suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing
of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks
and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly
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at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover photograph: Burj Khalifa Window, August 2013. Photograph
by Francis Cox.
To Aqil and Yasmeen

Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliteration xiii
Two Models 1
1. Labor Markets and Class Politics 18
2. Participation 45
3. Explaining Kuwaiti Exceptionalism 60
4. The Consequences of Absolutism 107
5. The Consequences of Participation 141
6. What Resource Curse? 184
Dilemmas of Development and Democracy in the Gulf 193
References 217
Index 235

Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1. Representative assemblies in the Gulf monarchies 47
3.1. Composition of state revenues around 1906 72
3.2. Pearling fl eets, population, and armed retainers in
the Gulf shaykhdoms 74
3.3. Visits by British fl agged steamers to the Gulf shaykhdoms 75
3.4. Time line of the 1962 Kuwaiti constitution 91
5.1. Cost to export a container 168
5.2. Quality of port infrastructure 168
Figures
I.1. Net foreign direct investment fl ows 5
I.2. Rent abundance versus rent dependence 12
I.3. Rent abundance versus rent dependence, fuel and
mineral export data 13
I.4. Rents per citizen in the richest rentiers 15
1.1. Percentage of UAE citizen men and women
in the labor force 22