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MAMOUN FANDY , Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent (New York: Palgrave, 1999).
MICHAEL HERB , All in the Family: Absolutism , Revolution , and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999).
JOSEPH A. KECHICHIAN , Succession in Saudi Arabia (New York: Palgrave, 2001).
JOSEPH KOSTINER , ed., Middle East Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000).
JOSEPH A. MASSAD , Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
MARY ANN TÉTREAULT , Stories of Democracy: Politics and Society in Contemporary Kuwait (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
Thirty years ago, a group of six books on ruling monarchies would have been considered the last testaments of an endangered anachronism. Faced with the "king's dilemma" of maintaining traditional rule in the face of modern political demands, many Middle Eastern monarchs lost their thrones to populist nationalist movements. Yet in the 21st century, a handful of monarchies remain and thrive. Because all of the major surviving monarchies are in the Middle East, many writers point to traditional Islamic rule as the key to the survival of these regimes.
However, is tradition the best explanation for survival or failure of monarchical regimes in the Middle East? Each of these six books in some way addresses the issue of the survival of monarchies in the Middle East. These books explain the longevity of monarchical rule in the Middle East as something more than the persistence of traditional Islam. As a group, these six books draw the Middle East back into a debate within the social sciences about the legacies of political institutions and regime types. Among Middle Eastern monarchies, regime-led state formation and nation building have produced a flexible form of rule that has survived the challenges of rapid development and international conflict. Many of the authors under review in this article also evaluate the promise of political liberalization and democratization in Middle Eastern monarchies. Explanations for regime survival and the prospects for liberalization and democratization, however, all rest on how these authors characterize monarchical regimes.
SULTANS VERSUS AUTHORITARIANS
In eight countries--Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman,...