“There is No God but Allah”: The Lack of Democratic Development in Saudi Arabia

In 2024, the Freedom House, a non-profit organization that focuses on advancing human rights and freedoms around the world, graded Saudi Arabia as an eight out of 100 on the freedom scale. Saudi Arabia is the second least free country in the Middle East, behind only Syria which scored one out of 100. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been ruled solely by the family of founder Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, and no government positions with any meaningful power are elected. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is the current king, but due to his old age, his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud serves as the de facto leader. The Al Sauds have lasted so long as the dominant tribe in Saudi Arabia partly due to their pact with the Wahhabis. In 1774, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, the creator of Wahhabism, a conservative and severe form of Islam, made a pact with Muhammad ibn Saud, the head of the Al Saud tribal family. The pact stated that the Al Saud family would adopt and promote Wahhabi Islam and in return, al-Wahhab’s followers would support the Al Saud tribe politically and economically. Much of the modern success of the Al Sauds in suppressing democratization is due to the structuralist nature of Saudi Arabia. Structuralism is a theory that the institutions and structures of society shape politics and, in this case, are important in maintaining the government’s power. Structuralism best explains the lack of democratic development in Saudi Arabia because it allows for the political elites to have total power and for the Wahhabi clerics to have influence in religious and cultural life.

Saudi Arabia has not developed into a democracy because its structuralist government composition gives power to the political elites who find it in their best interest to suppress democratic development. In the history of Saudi Arabia from its formal declaration in 1932 to 2025, the country has been ruled solely by founder Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, also known as Ibn Saud, and five of his sons. His 45 sons and approximately 1000 grandchildren now make up the majority of the political elites. Now, all-powerful members of the Saudi government are descendants of Ibn Saud or other members of the Al Saud family. The Al Sauds suppressed democratic development because they feared that elections would lead to the family being ousted from power,“perpetuat[ing] their rule through a skillful combination of distribution, penetration, and coercion, with a legitimating dose of ideology.” The Al Sauds use a combination of “carrots and sticks, with religious underpinnings,” to remain in power. One example of a stick used by the royal family is imprisonment. In 2012, the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association called for Saudi Arabia to become democratic and for the removal of authoritarian leaders and the creation of a constitutional democracy. A year later, the Saudi regime sentenced the organization’s founders Abdullah al-Hamed and Fahad al-Qatani to at least ten years in prison for “setting up an unlicensed human rights organization.” In 1994, the crown revoked Osama bin Laden’s citizenship for his criticism of the monarchy. Other times, instead of convicting activists of phony crimes or ostracizing them, the monarchy has used force. In 2018, Saudi Arabian military forces killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi, who was Saudi and lived in Saudi Arabia until he fled in self-imposed exile, published a monthly column in the Washington Post critical of the leadership of the Crown Prince. The Saudi government has at times denied killing Khashoggi, and the Crown Prince said he was not involved or aware of the plan. However, the CIA concluded that the order to kill Khashoggi came directly from bin Salman. Part of the power of the Al Saud family comes from their immense wealth; the government and elites are incredibly rich due to Saudi Arabia’s expansive oil fields. Though the country is “an economic powerhouse buttressed by oil revenues,” it has “significant poverty among its citizens.” Keeping the elites rich and the citizens in poverty hinders democratic development as the public does not have enough resources to try and bring about change and the government has more than enough money to shut democratization down.

The Wahhabi clerics and ulama, the religious authorities, are some of the most important institutions in Saudi Arabia as they lead the country religiously and culturally and suppress democratization and freedom. In return for being loyal to the Al Saud and helping the King maintain cultural control of the country, the Wahhabi are occasionally awarded bureaucratic appointments in places such as the judiciary, education system, and the ulama. The ulama, many of whom are Wahhabi, help the Al Saud control the country; “it is not clear that the Al Saud could maintain power without their support.” They help suppress democratization as they are resistant to change, “particularly in the sociocultural realm,” and are outspoken about their views. The ulama, as servants of the Crown, help the royal family during times of crises by “[justifying] policy decisions.” The impact of the ulama is that though there are diverse religious sects of Islam in Saudi Arabia, only one, Wahhabism, is “structurally empowered” as it is the official brand of Islam. The message “there is no God but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” appears on the Saudi flag, showing how “public discourse is dominated by one particularly austere interpretation, the one that is sanctioned by the state.”

While Saudi Arabia has made small steps towards democratization and freedom as women recently gained the right to drive, the strength of the Wahhabi clerics and ulama and the power of the political elites inhibit democratic development. The ulama control religion and culture in the country and they inhibit democratization by enforcing their conservative views, and the political elites use their power to suppress democratization by controlling their people. Until the Al Saud family decides to completely democratize Saudi Arabia or the Saudi public pressures the Crown towards democratization, the prospect of a strong democracy in Saudi Arabia is bleak.