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Saudi Arabia
PUBLIC ORDER AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
The successful forging of the different tribes of the Arabian
Peninsula into a coherent nation during the first half of the
twentieth century must be credited to Abd al Aziz and the House
of Saud. If there were one singular element in Saudi society that
explained the relative stability during the first sixty years
of the kingdom, it was the allegiance that had been exhibited
by a preponderant segment of the population to the Al Saud. Internal
order and the continued existence of the monarchy, however, did
not come automatically to the country simply because of the leadership
and charisma of Abd al Aziz. Of great significance during his
reign was the establishment of the country's basic security forces
and a code of behavior intended to instill fear and respect for
the law and obedience to it.
With its tasks of preventing intertribal warfare and protecting
the House of Saud from any possible threat, the national guard
has been the primary agency for upholding the security of the
government. The loyalty of the guard has, however, been more than
blind allegiance to the person of the king. In 1964, when the
kingdom was in trouble under King Saud, the guard supported Faisal
and the Al Saud in deposing the monarch, acting as an instrument
in a controlled process of succession. Under its commander, Abd
Allah, one of the powerful princes in the kingdom, the national
guard remained an important factor in national stability in 1992.
It was, however, increasingly being supplanted by more modern
agencies of control under the Ministry of Interior that had the
king's full brother, Amir Nayif, at its head and another full
brother, Amir Ahmad ibn Abd al Aziz, as the deputy minister.
Traditionally, the allegiance of the people has been to the tribe
and to the extended family (see Diversity and Social Stratification;
Cultural Homogeneity Values , ch. 2). One of Abd al Aziz's truly
significant accomplishments was to implant the concept of allegiance
to the House of Saud and by extension to the government and the
judicial system. Also important was the recognition by the Saudis
of their ethnic identity as an Arab people and their religious
identity with Wahhabi Islam. Each aspect of a person's day-to-day
conduct could be categorized as being within the bounds of acceptable
behavior or outside those bounds, with no distinction between
the secular and the religious spheres. Few Saudis chose to live
outside the law, and their basic attitudes supported an orderly
society.
In theory, all persons, including the king and foreigners, were
equal before the law and subject to both the sharia and law by
decree. In practice, however, members of the royal family and
other leaders have rarely been brought to public trial. Cases
involving foreigners have often been handled outside the court
system, frequently by deportation.
Data as of December 1992
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