|
Kuwait
Kuwait -- POLITICAL SYSTEM
Ruling Family
The modern political history of Kuwait began in the early eighteenth
century when a number of families of the Bani Utub section of
the Anaizah tribe migrated from central Arabia, settling eventually
in Kuwait. Once in Kuwait, they established a self-governing political
unit. The date of 1756 is conventionally chosen as the year when
the settlers decided to select as their leader Sabah, an Al Sabah
shaykh, who was succeeded by his son Abd Allah, in turn succeeded
by his son Jabir. All subsequent rulers historically have come
from the Al Sabah line, chosen by family council, in consultation
with the leading merchant families who, along with the tribal
elite, exercise some restriction over the shaykhs' political autonomy.
The shaykh's primary task was to represent his community in foreign
policy, negotiating with Ottoman Turkey and with neighboring tribes.
The one major and unsuccessful challenge to this system of rule
occurred in the 1760s when the Al Khalifa family disagreed with
the Al Sabah and in consequence left Kuwait for Qatar, and then
Bahrain, where the Al Khalifa continue to rule. Despite the rift,
the two settlements maintained good relations, including close
trade ties.
In the nineteenth century, members of the Al Sabah oversaw the
growing trade and pearling settlement in Kuwait. The rulers also
developed a cordial relationship with Britain, beginning with
the first contacts with the British East India Company in 1775.
As members of a small, vulnerable settlement, Kuwait's rulers
attempted to maintain a polite but distant relationship with all
the local powers, notably the British, the Wahhabis (see Glossary)
of Arabia, and the Ottomans. It was only under Abd Allah Al Sabah
II, who ruled from 1866 to 1892, that Kuwait began to edge away
from this policy of neutrality. Abd Allah developed close ties
with the Ottomans, even taking the Ottoman title, albeit largely
as a formality, of provincial governor (qaimaqam) in
1871. In practical terms, Kuwait's domestic politics remained
unchanged because the Ottoman government did not interfere in
the selection of rulers and laws. In any event, this tilt was
completely reversed when, following the four-year rule of Muhammad
Al Sabah, Mubarak the Great acceded to the rule from 1896 to 1915.
Kuwait came into the British sphere of influence at the end of
the nineteenth century when Mubarak sought British support against
Ottoman forces. The Ottomans were backing allies of Mubarak's
brothers, Kuwait's previous rulers, whom Mubarak had killed on
taking power in 1896. Uneasy about Ottoman intentions, Mubarak
reversed his predecessors' pro-Ottoman policy and approached Britain,
seeking a more formal alliance. Britain, concerned with growing
European interests and notably with an Ottoman concession to Germany
for construction of a Berlin-to- Baghdad railroad--with a proposed
spur line to Kuwait--agreed. Britain signed a treaty with Kuwait
in 1899 that promised Mubarak British support and, in return,
gave Britain control of Kuwait's foreign policy. This treaty governed
relations between the two states until Kuwait's independence in
1961. It granted Britain tremendous influence, most notably in
foreign and economic policy.
After Mubarak's death, Kuwait was ruled by two of his sons, Jabir
Al Sabah (1915-17) and Salim Al Sabah (1917-21) . Thereafter,
with one exception, only descendants of Mubarak through these
two sons would rule Kuwait, thus forming a major cleavage within
the ruling family. After Salim's death in 1921, Kuwait was ruled
for nearly three decades by Ahmad al Jabir Al Sabah. Ahmad al
Jabir's rule witnessed a serious effort to constrain ruling family
power. In 1938 a rebellion, known locally as the Majlis Movement,
developed. New issues arose. Kuwait was in the midst of a serious
recession as a result of the general decline of the pearling industry,
the Great Depression, and a trade dispute with Saudi Arabia that
prompted a Saudi embargo. Simultaneously, the recently signed
oil concession with KOC promised better times ahead if the resulting
income were not monopolized by the ruling family. To prevent that
from happening, the leading merchants began petitioning the ruler
for a series of reforms. In June the merchants took their protest
a step further, holding elections for a legislative assembly to
implement the desired reforms using these new revenues. The Legislative
Assembly ruled for six months until finally put down by the ruler
and his tribal backers. The assembly, however, came to be viewed
as Kuwait's first prodemocracy movement. Its popularity gave the
idea of formal representation a place in Kuwaiti popular history.
Ahmad al Jabir was succeeded by his cousin Abd Allah as Salim
Al Sabah (1950-65), who oversaw the distribution of now substantial
oil revenues, the consequent emergence of a large bureaucratic
state, and the transformation of Kuwait into a wealthy oil-producing
shaykhdom. In terms of internal developments, Abd Allah as Salim
made two transformative political decisions. The first was to
distribute these new revenues broadly throughout the population,
primarily through wide-ranging social services, notably education
and health care. The second was to introduce a greater degree
of political participation to Kuwait in the form of the newly
elected National Assembly. This body held its first elections
in 1963. Abd Allah as Salim also oversaw Kuwait's transformation
into a formally independent state on June 19, 1961, when he and
British representatives signed new letters of friendship to replace
the treaty of 1899.
When Abd Allah as Salim died in 1965, he was succeeded by his
brother Sabah as Salim Al Sabah--a somewhat unusual choice in
that he, like Abd Allah as Salim, came from the Salim line rather
than the Jabir line of the family, breaking the alternation between
the two sides of the family that had existed since the rule of
Mubarak's sons Jabir and Salim. Nonetheless, Sabah as Salim's
rule proved to be largely a continuation and consolidation of
policies set in place by Abd Allah as Salim. When Sabah as Salim
died in December 1977, he was succeeded by Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad
al Jabir Al Sabah, a succession that returned the former pattern
of alternation between the lines of Jabir and Salim.
The influence of external events has dominated Jabir al Ahmad's
rule. The first was the Iran-Iraq War, which rapidly increased
the level of political violence in this historically relatively
peaceful shaykhdom. Major events included the 1983 bombing of
the United States embassy and, probably most notable, the dramatic
public assassination attempt on the amir in 1985. The tension
associated with the war also exacerbated divisions within Kuwaiti
society, notably that between Sunnis and Shia, and prompted the
amir increasingly to limit public participation in political life.
Although in 1980 Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad restored the National Assembly
(which Sabah as Salim had abolished in 1976), the increasing political
tension prompted him to do away with it again in 1986 and to introduce
new measures curtailing civil and political rights. These measures
prompted a wide range of opposition leaders--including old parliamentarians,
Islamists (sometimes seen as fundamentalists), and merchants--to
form the Constitutional Movement of 1989-90, a prodemocracy movement
calling for the restoration of the National Assembly.
The second external event was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in
August 1990, which, for the first time in Kuwait's history, placed
the state under direct foreign rule. Although sovereignty was
restored in February 1991, events leading up to the invasion and
the amir's behavior during and after the occupation prompted open
grumbling about the ruling family itself. The criticism centered
on the amir and the fact that most of the ruling family spent
the time of the Iraqi occupation in comfortable exile abroad and
delayed their return to the country after the war ended.
In 1993 Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad still ruled Kuwait; his designated
successor, Prime Minister Saad al Abd Allah as Salim Al Sabah,
also came from the Al Sabah ruling family. Although the Al Sabah
remained paramount, the family as a ruling institution had changed
dramatically since it assumed its leading role in the mid-eighteenth
century. First, succession patterns within the family had changed.
In the nineteenth century, rule passed regularly from father to
son. With the accession of Mubarak in the late nineteenth century,
a new pattern was established that excluded all but Mubarak's
line from the top position. This custom is formalized in the Kuwaiti
constitution and in practice created a new pattern of alternation
of rulers between the two lines of Mubarak's sons, Jabir and Salim.
It was in keeping with this pattern that Shaykh Jabir al Ahmad
(from the Jabir line) named as his crown prince and heir apparent
Saad al Abd Allah as Salim, from the Salim line.
The relationship between the ruling family and Kuwaiti society
also changed in more subtle ways. Members of the family other
than the ruler, once first among equals in a society where merchants
and other elites played an important role in decision making,
became in the years after oil was discovered far wealthier because
their wealth was guaranteed by a civil list--a list of sums appropriated
to pay the expenses of a ruler and his household. Ruling family
members also became socially more prominent and politically more
important as they took over many of the state's highest posts.
In part, this transformation occurred as a result of the emergence
of a large state bureaucracy and the need Kuwaiti rulers felt
to fill the state's highest posts with loyal supporters, notably
kin.
Data as of January 1993
|
