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> Why should the House of Saud govern, and not be replaced by a democracy? How would that fix any of the issues that SA is facing right now?
by tomp 11y ago
> Why should the House of Saud govern, and not be replaced by a democracy?
How would that fix any of the issues that SA is facing right now?
- mafribe 11y agoI don't know. The population of Arabia is probably best placed to discuss this. (Note that calling it "Saudi Arabia" implicitly accepts the rule of the House of Saud.) Understanding the mechanisms the House of Saud uses to stay in power is probably a small first step in the transition to something better.
- Qwertious 11y agoWell fundamentally, its main reason for backwards laws (e.g. non-equality for women) is that the House of Saud derives its legitimacy from a rather orthodox religious sect, in exchange for enforcing said orthodox sect's backwards religious rules. Switching to a democracy would mean nobody need pander to the Wahhabi sect.
- PKop 11y agoThat assumes the people wouldn't vote for an orthodox religious government. I'm almost certain, for quite a while, they would. See: http://clarionproject.org/analysis/islamists-using-democracy-install-oppressive-sharia-law http://clarionproject.org/analysis/islamists-using-democracy...
- tomp 11y agoSure. That's exactly what happened in e.g. Egypt /s it didn't. We have to face the reality here; if the "religious sect" is so powerful that it can challenge the absulotist monarch, then it's definitely powerful enough to play divide-and-conquer with different democratic parties.