På uppdrag av Allah - En studie av legitimiteten i den saudiarabiska statsapparaten

Sammanfattning: Since 2003 Saudi Arabia is under attack from domestic Al Qaida-cells which, by random shootings of westerners and bombings of compounds and official state buildings, is trying to challenge the stability of the royal regime. According to Al Qaida, the Royal family is attacked because of their friendly relations to the US and for not implementing Islam in the Saudi society as profound as they ought to. Political analyst finds it obvious that the Islamic Al Qaida-cells by terrorism is trying to erode the stability in the kingdom. An important foundation for stability for any government is legitimacy. The aim of this thesis is to examine the royal legitimacy strategy in the state bureaucracy of Saudi Arabia. The question at issue is: how has the royal family constructed the civil, military and religious bureaucracies to maintain and promote stability and legitimacy? The thesis focuses on the on three different units within these three bureaucracies and it surveys the way they are staffed and organized to strengthen and maintain legitimacy for the royal family. To analyse legitimacy the thesis primarily use the theoretical work of Michael Hudson and David Easton whose contribution to legitimacy studies constitutes an important foundation in this thesis. One of the thesis major conclusions is that the Royal Family have gained legitimacy by building structural legitimacy and by an extraordinary successful performance in supplying welfare. The thesis also shows that the Al Saud's right to govern is legitimized by an old agreement with the Ulama which also approves different forms of coercion to secure stability. Characters: 84.275