Policy-making in Qatar: The macro-policy framework

This chapter discusses what many may consider an oxymoron: policy-making in a monarchy. To an outsider, policy in Qatar must simply be what the emir says it is. Chapter 2 has outlined some of the institutional features of the Qatari political system, and while it is indeed led by the Al-Thani tribe and it is dominated by the Emir, that is not the full story. Every political system, no matter how apparently centralized and controlled, has its factions, interests, power differentials, and internal dynamics. Overlaying this universal reality are several other specific factors: (1) the formal commitments that the Qatari state has made to democratization, albeit limited and delayed; (2) the evident examples of unrest in other countries in the region, starting with the Arab Spring, that have destabilized regimes or at least threatened them; and (3) the imperatives of managing rapid and massive social and economic development. These factors pose challenges even to a Gulf monarchy—essentially the same challenges that most governments face in developing, designing, and implementing public policies that will both satisfy their populations and generate enough wealth to sustain the polity.