Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats

Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats is an extraordinary book. Impressively researched, insightful, and lucidly written, Steffen Hertog has laid bare the complexity of the Saudi state, including its history, the ways the state functions, the impact of oil wealth on its institutions, and the behavior of its bureaucrats.... It is no exaggeration to write that Hertog's book is the finest book ever written on politics and the state in Saudi Arabia, an unparalleled achievement.... Hertogs work reveals a number of wrinkles in the conventional wisdom on Saudi Arabia and the politics of oil states. Inefficiency and corruption exist in Saudi Arabia but so, too, do efficiency and professionalism. Where rentier theory predicts uniform patterns of government behavior, particularly in regard to corruption and paralyzing rent seeking, Hertog finds diverse patterns of behavior.... This book is the clearest and best documented work yet on the nuts and bolts of the Saudi government as well as its complicated bureaucracy and distribution of power. -- Toby C. Jones * International Journal of Middle East Studies * It is an ability to see how politics shapes the structure and operations of the contemporary Saudi state that distinguishes Hertog's book. In a work characterized throughout by rigorous analysis, astute historical reflection and sharp observation, Hertog brilliantly illustrates the complexities and contradictions of an Arab rentier state. -- G. J. H. Dowling * Middle East Policy *

Steffen Hertog is Kuwait Professor at Sciences Po Paris and Lecturer in the School of Government and International Affairs at the University of Durham.

Introduction 1. Unpacking the Saudi State: Oil Fiefdoms and Their Clients Part I: Oil and History 2. Oil Fiefdoms in Flux: The New Saudi State in the 1950s 3. The Emerging Bureaucratic Order under Faisal 4. The 1970s Boom: Bloating the State and Clientelizing Society Part II: Policy-Making in Segmented Clientelism 5. The Foreign Investment Act: Lost between Fiefdoms 6. Eluding the "Saudization" of Labor Markets 7. The Fragmented Domestic Negotiations over WTO Adaptation 8. Comparing the Case Studies, Comparing Saudi Arabia