Centre–Periphery Relations and the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Saudi Arabia: The Municipal Elections in the Eastern Province, 1954–1960

Matthiesen, Toby

doi:10.1080/13530194.2014.947242

Cited by 4 publications

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“…It has grounded political analysis in Yemen (see Wedeen, 2007), Iraq (see Lynch, 2003Lynch, , 2006, Saudi Arabia (see Matthiesen, 2015) and the wider Arab region (see Abdelmoula, 2015;Ayish, 2008;Lynch, 2006;Mellor, Eickelman, 2003;Jamal, 2009;Lynch, 2006;Mellor, 2007;Shami, 2009;Wedeen, 2007). These principles, whether intended or not, frame the empirical evidence of democratisation in terms of its future emancipative power.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…A distinct public sphere research programme has emerged in the study of democratisation in the Arab states of the Middle East. It has grounded political analysis in Yemen (see Wedeen, 2007), Iraq (see Lynch, 2003, 2006), Saudi Arabia (see Matthiesen, 2015) and the wider Arab region (see Abdelmoula, 2015; Ayish, 2008; Lynch, 2006; Mellor, 2007; Murphy, 2009; Riegart, 2015; Salvatore, 2015, 2013, 2011; Shami, 2009). An emergent, fluid, conceptual framework, ‘public sphere’, brings order and organisation to the reporting of non-institutional, non-elite forms of democratic participation and consolidation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

Abbott

2016

Journal of International Political Theory

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The main purpose of this article is to examine how Habermas' account of the transformation of the public sphere is used in the study of political change in the Arab states of the Middle East. The study aims to demonstrate that while Habermas' motif may provide several constructive pathways forward for the study of transformation in this regional context, its numerous shortcomings leave it susceptible to conceptual overstretch. With the aim of showing this, the article is divided into three sections. The first section shows how the concept has been applied. The second engages critically with the prominent account of the Arab public sphere by reflecting on (1) its methodological assumptions, (2) its empirical claims and (3) its own political role. The third section explores the shortcomings of Habermas' account and how these present difficulties when making empirical claims about political action and transformation in the Arab states of the Middle East.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

Abbott

2016

Journal of International Political Theory

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The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991

Matthiesen

2020

Journal of Cold War Studies

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The Communist Party of Saudi Arabia was a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist party that existed from 1975 until the early 1990s. Its roots lay in the labor movement of the 1950s in the oil-producing Eastern Province. The history of this province is a hitherto almost unknown aspect of modern Saudi history, Arab Marxism, and the broader Cold War. The Saudi Communist Party helped to launch an uprising in 1979 in the Eastern Province and was particularly active in propagating its ideas throughout the 1980s as the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia fought a proxy war in Afghanistan. Despite opposing the monarchy's use of Islam as a tool of legitimacy and a propaganda instrument against Communism in the Cold War, the party called for a common front with Islamic groups opposed to the monarchy at home. After the dissolution of the party in 1991, former party members became key actors in the reformist petitions of 1990–1991, 2003, and 2011. This article is based on fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, interviews with veteran leftists from the region, and hitherto unexamined primary sources in Arabic, German, and English, including party publications and archival sources.

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Marx's Arabian Apostles: The Rise and Fall of the Saudi Communist Movement

Al-Sudairi¹

2019

middle east j

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Saudi Arabia's historic communist movement is considerably overlooked in the literature on secular dissent in the kingdom. This article attempts to address this gap by offering a historical account of the movement's early formation, dispersion, radicalization and, ultimately, transformation into the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia. This metamorphosis from a diffuse and ideologically eclectic organization into a more orthodox, Soviet-style, and structurally coherent party, paradoxically, marked the Saudi movement's political twilight as it assumed an organizational and intellectual straitjacket that contributed to its demise.

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Centre–Periphery Relations and the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Saudi Arabia: The Municipal Elections in the Eastern Province, 1954–1960

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

The Cold War and the Communist Party of Saudi Arabia, 1975–1991

Marx's Arabian Apostles: The Rise and Fall of the Saudi Communist Movement

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