This thesis has explored the process that has transformed Saudi Arabia from a loose tribeal community into a centralized urban society. This process was accomplished under the traditional political leadership if the House of Saud, which imposed a framework for national integration by setting the limits on the boundaries of the nation. Out of conviction and necessity the Sauds decided that the system inherited from the past eras out of date and that a change to modern policies was necessary. Reforms were launched but within the existing framework of political and religious ligitamacy.In addition, the thesis has discussed the impact of petroleum development on all sectors of the Saudi society, as well as a general growth, on the evolution of development planning machinery, or. settlement of nomads, on improvement in the provision of social welfare and education. Despite the huge capital surplus from oil production, the thesis finds major problems which continue to confront the Saudi leadership-- traditional constraints and manpower constraints. The thesis' findings confirm that the social and institutional constraints inherited from the past are far more powerful limitations to modernization and development than has been generally realized.

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This dissertation examines the relationship between religion and state in Saudi Arabia. More than any other country in the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia is identified with Islam. It is the state religion, its source of political legitimacy, it shapes state policies and activities, and serves as the moral code of society. / The findings of this study support the hypothesis that the state, because of its monopoly of force and resources, and the need to maintain autonomy, can not tolerate an autonomous religious domain that would compete with it for the loyalty of citizens. The state will extend its authority to the religious domain and utilize religious leaders and institutions to perpetuate its policies. This state will make use of religious values to strengthen its authority and legitimacy. It will not hesitate to suppress religious institutions if they challenge its authority.

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This study examines the political and administrative role of planning and budgeting in Saudi Arabia. It demonstrates how they have contributed to lessening the political crises of distribution, participation, and penetration that confront developing countries. The study also investigates how these two bureaucratic processes have helped adapt rapid changes in a manner acceptable to the cultural milieu. In addition, the study explores the politics of planning and budgeting and identifies the roles various actors play. The evolution and institutionalization of planning and budgeting are examined through printed materials and interviews with planners and budgeters in the Ministries of Planning and Finance. In addition, a number of the Ulama, businessmen, former government bureaucrats, officials of key ministries and agencies, and media were interviewed in an attempt to understand how they interact in the politics of planning and budgeting.

This thesis is a theory-proposing and theory-testing study that examines the conditions of state survival in the Middle East. In contrast to the predominant Political Culture and Political Economy approaches, which focus on domestic factors to account for state survival in the Middle East, this thesis suggests that, more than the individual characteristics of states themselves, state survival in that region is a function of the anarchic state system. This thesis examines states as a ‘process’ situating them in time and place. It shows that Middle Eastern states are at once in the early phases of state formation as well as late comers to the international state system. This ontological status contributes to the vulnerability of these states to systematic forces, which in turn shapes their internal development. A major dilemma facing the late-forming state is between regime survival and political incorporation. The first part of this thesis examines the literatures on the state, the Middle East state, and state survival. The second part proposes a Historical Structuralism model and then examines the ontology of the state in the Middle East, specifying the conditions and variables of state survival. The third part presents an empirical examination of the cases of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.