Divided Government in Kuwait: The Politics of Parliament since the Gulf War.
Kuwait stands alone in the Gulf in its experimentation with parliamentary governance. Stretching back to the Majlis Movement of 1938, Kuwait's history shows a long, if uneven, account of political competition and societal constraint on the ruling family, the Al Sabah. The failure of the Al Sabah to...
| Publicado en: | DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 1 - 2 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Wiley-Blackwell
Jl 31, 1999
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=511123524&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 511123524 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10604367 S2B jtl: DOMES: Digest of Middle East Studies issn: 10604367 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jl 31, 1999 vid: 8 iid: 1 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell artinfo: ui: 511123524 ppf: 1 ppct: 1 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: T tig: atl: Divided Government in Kuwait: The Politics of Parliament since the Gulf War. aug: au: Smith, Kristin ab: Kuwait stands alone in the Gulf in its experimentation with parliamentary governance. Stretching back to the Majlis Movement of 1938, Kuwait's history shows a long, if uneven, account of political competition and societal constraint on the ruling family, the Al Sabah. The failure of the Al Sabah to safeguard the country against invasion opened the door for a new era of parliamentary politics in the post-Gulf War period, as a weakened ruling family agreed to the restoration of the National Assembly in order to unify all Kuwaiti political trends behind them during the Iraqi occupation. The past seven years have been a rough ride for the Al Sabah, as the National Assembly has found its voice in challenging both their policies and political privileges. Indeed, as this paper will show, the political composition of the parliament has seemed to matter little to government-parliamentary relations, as both the opposition-dominated 1992 Assembly and the 1996 ostensibly pro-government Assembly resulted in discord between the parliament and government. It remains to be seen if the most recent Parliamentary elections -- themselves a result of an Emiri decree dissolving the previous Assembly -- will return a parliament capable of balancing confrontation over parliamentary prerogatives with the cooperation necessary to address the economic and social dilemmas resulting from the low-oil price environment Kuwait now faces. The fiasco of the Gulf War and the financial difficulties that followed it left the Al Sabah vulnerable to a major political challenge. Since the Gulf War, the ruling family has used the economic and political means still at its disposal to defend its prerogatives against opposition attacks. As a ruling power mediating the relationship between Kuwait and the rest of the world, the Al Sabah's legitimacy resides in its ability to 1) protect Kuwait and manage its foreign policy, and 2) manage Kuwait's oil production and sale, and the distribution of the oil wealth to the populace.(7) The opposition forces thus united in attacking these twin pillars of legitimacy. After the 1992 parliamentary elections, the opposition focused on the Al Sabah's scandalous handling of the Iraqi invasion, and on its failure to protect the integrity of Kuwait's public funds, in particular the Kuwaiti Fund for Future Generations. The opposition charged that not only did the members of the ruling family abandon Kuwait before and during the occupation but they also absconded with funds reserved for Kuwait's future after oil. With the Islamists forming the majority of the opposition and cooperating with the government, it would appear to have been smooth sailing for the Al Sabah. However, in the ensuing year, the Islamists would prove to be less than reliable allies. Perhaps sensing their own political strength, the Islamists initiated their own political scandal. In February and March of 1998, during the midst of a dangerous escalation in UN-Iraq tensions, the Islamists launched a sustained attack on the Information Minister, Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah, after his ministry mistakenly allowed more than 160 banned books deemed damaging to Islam to appear at a book fair in the Gulf state. The Islamist opposition summoned Sheikh Saud to a parliamentary interrogation, and then, cross-examined him for nearly seven hours over the banned books matter in a house session that drew more than 2,000 spectators.(14) When they proved capable of gaining the parliamentary votes to pass a no-confidence measure against Sheikh Saud -- an unprecedented act in Kuwaiti history -- they forced the government's hand. Premier Sheikh Sa'ad called for the resignation of his cabinet, then shuffled the ministers moving Sheikh Saud to the more prestigious Oil Ministry, and dropping four pro-Islamist ministers from the cabinet. The Islamist MPs considered escalating the conflict with their former government allies, but lost the support of the pro-government independents for continuing the confrontation.(15) pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: Undetermined refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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