Number 8, September 2013
KINGS FOR ALL SEASONS:
HOW THE MIDDLE EAST’S MONARCHIES
SURVIVED THE ARAB SPRING
F. GREGORY GAUSE, III
Brookings
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Copyright © 2013
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of
Contents
I. Executive Summary ............................................................................................................1
II. Introduction ......................................................................................................................3
III. “Just Wait, They Will Fall” .............................................................................................5
IV. The Strange Case of Monarchical Stability .....................................................................8
Cultural Legitimacy ...................................................................................................8
Functional Superiority: Performance and Reform ..................................................12
V. Monarchical Political Reform: Individual v. Dynastic Monarchies ...............................15
The Individual Monarchies ......................................................................................15
The Dynastic Monarchies .......................................................................................18
VI. Explaining Monarchical