Though never stated explicitly, Abir's purpose is to explain why massive changes in Saudi Arabia during the past thirty-five years have not led to upheaval and revolution. As the subtitle suggests, he sees elites as critical to the state's continued stability. He argues that the country's several elites — royal, religious, technical, and (recently) military — have stayed loyal to the regime because they have been satisfied. "Far from being an absolute monarchy, or a desert democracy, the Saudi regime is an oligarchy, whose cornerstone is the principle of consultation and consensus." Looking to the future, however, the author sees an economic downturn leading to increased opposition.
Abir establishes this less-than-earth-shaking thesis through a painstaking analysis of the standard sources, plus 120 M.A. and Ph.D. dissertations on Saudi public life, mostly by Saudi nationals. Though not impressed by their quality, he does note that several were essential to his understanding of opposition forces and the disenfranchised middle-class elite. Unfortunately, Abir himself writes a prose so lusterless that only devoted students of Saudi affairs or the sociology of elites are likely to make their way through the entire text.
