Hydrocarbon Citizens by Nimah Mazaheri;

Author:Nimah Mazaheri;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press USA
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Emirati professionals and business owners also contrast with their Saudi Arabian counterparts. Whereas Saudi Arabian owners of large businesses did not hold attitudes that were statistically different from other occupations, Emirati owners of large businesses are more likely to hold negative attitudes about government performance in many areas. Emiratis in the professional classes were likewise found to hold more negative attitudes about government performance, specifically in regard to managing the economy, helping people prosper, and addressing education. Emirati owners of small businesses, however, are more likely to hold positive attitudes about government performance, with the exception of improving health and addressing education.

Research on the interests of business owners often finds that large business owners are more supportive of the government, whereas the attitudes of small business owners can vary. The owners of large businesses are more likely to have close personal relationships with politicians and bureaucrats compared to owners of small businesses, which can facilitate the former’s influence over government policymaking and benefit their company’s growth.47 Small business owners’ attitudes are often found to be critical of the government and the economic dominance of larger businesses, but in some instances they mimic the pro-government attitudes of large business owners.48 In the UAE, large business owners may be more critical of the government due to the influence that state-owned companies wield in oil and non-oil sectors. These types of owners may also be more supportive of economic liberalization compared to their Saudi Arabian peers. To be sure, more research about business owners in the UAE is needed in order to understand the reasons for their more critical attitudes.

Consistent with Saudi Arabia, gender plays an important role is predicting the attitudes of employed Emiratis. About 41 percent of Emirati women in the sample reported having full-time jobs, which is about 8 percent higher than the official statistic.49 Employed Emirati women are 1.409 times more likely than employed Emirati men to perceive government performance in creating jobs as “very good,” and they are 1.361 times more likely to “absolutely agree” that the government creates conditions for people to prosper. As with Saudi Arabians, this may be related to the recent increase in Emirati women joining the workforce. The percentage of Emirati women joining the workforce increased from 30.9 to 32.5 percent from 2016 to 2017, while the percentage of Emirati men declined from 64.1 to 62.9 percent over the same period.50 In the last few years, the UAE government has emphasized the need to boost female employment and entrepreneurship, which included the adoption of anti-gender-discrimination laws.51

Education and age are important factors in explaining Emiratis’ attitudes about government performance in oil-related areas (see Table 5.7). Education is a positive predictor of Emiratis’ attitudes in Citizen Input in Spending Oil Money, Western Oil Companies Took Advantage, and All Oil-Rich States Must Nationalize. This suggests that education may lead to the spread of more nationalistic sentiments, whereby Emirati citizens are more likely to believe that a strong government and an active citizenry are together critical in maintaining a successful rentier state.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.