Society and State in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula (RLE: The Arab Nation) by Khaldoun Nassan Al-Naqeeb

Author:Khaldoun Nassan Al-Naqeeb [Al-Naqeeb, Khaldoun Nassan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136251993
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2012-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

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Government expenditure generated from increased petroleum revenue does not mean only the expansion of the role of government and its centrality in the political life of people, but a great deal more. It means the state’s complete penetration of the economy and consequently its bureaucratization,* and similarly the state’s domination of the basic source of material power derived from the ownership of the country’s economic resources. The expansion of the public sector’s ownership is therefore not so innocent to begin with, since it greatly extends the domain controlled by the state, just as it does not lead to any form of socialism, in spite of the public ownership of economic resources, but rather to dependent state capitalism, as we have stated. How is this problem to be explained?

An analysis of the first situation, that is the development of the public sector in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula countries, may guide us to a perception of the special characteristics of the second situation, namely dependent state capitalism in these countries. It should be clear from the beginning, however, ‘that the concept of the public sector is narrower than the concept of state capitalism, since the latter refers to the mode of socio-economic production which includes the whole of society, while the public sector refers to public ownership of the economic projects and enterprises.38 However, by reasoning, from an analysis of the public sector to dependent state capitalism, we mean to say that the acceptance of a certain type of public sector in any country to a large extent determines the characteristics of state capitalism in that country.

The first thing that strikes one’s mind when we speak about the development of the public sector and the expansion of the centralized state’s bureaucracy is the number of employees in the government and the public sector and their percentage of the total workforce. This criterion, even though accurate, is nevertheless a secondary partial criterion which merely gives us a limited estimate of the actual proportions of the public sector and the state’s public ownership, as elucidated by James O’Connor in his study of the role of the state under the conditions of monopolistic capitalism in the west.39 According to this procedure, we must regard the public sector as constituting, in addition to those employed by the government, all who depend primarily upon the state for their livelihood.

In a more detailed form, the size of the public sector is determined if we know the size of the following groups: (1) the employees of the government and the public sector institutions; (2) the recipients of government aid as a source of their livelihood; (3) the beneficiaries of the social security programmes, such as retired people; (4) students who are of working age, but do not work; (5) those who depend for a living upon government contracts and as purveyors to the government, that is to its enterprises and departments; (6) those who in their work benefit from the use of government facilities; (7) the beneficiaries of

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