Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO DATE: 10/5/2007
Kuwait: Politics in a Participatory Emirate
June 2007
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Abstract
Kuwait has a long history of consultative government, constitutionalism, and participatory politics unique among the monarchies of the Gulf region. The ruling Al Sabah family’s place in the political system was established by agreement—not force—among the leading families of the trading city of Kuwait in the mid-eighteenth century; administration by consultation continued until the late nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, while the country was a British protectorate, authoritarian tendencies within the ruling family were countered by a strong constitutional movement that started in the 1920s, bore fruit in parliamentary elections in 1938, and resulted in a fairly democratic constitution when the country became independent in 1961. Since then, Kuwait has had 11 parliamentary elections, and the National Assembly has continued to play a very powerful role in the state.
Nevertheless, there has been a long power struggle between the ruling Sabah family and the Parliament, leading to the suspension of both the constitution and Parliament in 1976 and again in 1986. The system became more stable after the liberation of Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion of 1990 for two reasons: fi rst, the Sabah family had performed poorly during the war and needed to rebuild its legitimacy with the Kuwaiti public; second, the United States insisted on a return to parliamentary constitutionalism after the war. Since then, Parliament has played a central role again and the country has seen various reforms.
