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Volume :27 Issue : 106 2009
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The Development of the Historical Relationship between Al-Sabah and the Merchants Since the Establishment Until the Reign of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem (in Arabic)
Auther : Abdullah Alhajeri
In this study, we look at Kuwait as a model of states in which the ruling elite have succeeded in their alliances with the most important factions of society (merchants) to find some kind of societal balance. This is because of the support of the ruling elite and the states recognition of their positions as representatives of their followers. Therefore a solidarity was established between the Al-Sabah and merchants, which was not religious or tribal. This, in turn, took the emirate, in most of its developmental stages, to a kind of positive stability. It also reflected a sincere wish by both sides, build justification, to build a modern society that succeeded later in building and preserving a modern state.
We will also discuss the nature of this commercial alliance with the ruling family, and whether it happened based on both sides conviction of the importance of participation and the adoption of the shoura principle, especially when a society based on this principle can best utilize the abilities of its individuals and groups, or whether some tribal alliances were an obstacle to this alliance.
We will also conclude that the merchants were one of the modernizing factions in society. Their basic demand was always to establish democratic-constitutional forms of rule, and that the ruling regime should seek to accommodate the new institutions and help open ways for political movements.