Governance and domestic policymaking in Saudi Arabia : transforming society, economics, politics and culture

"Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan 2020 are governmental initiatives to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and implement nationwide social changes. Media and scholarly attention often describe the success or failure of these ambitious visions. This book shifts the focus to instead examine and evaluate the actual processes of domestic policymaking and governance that are being mapped out to achieve them. The book is unique in its breadth, with case studies from across different sectors including labour markets, defence, health, youth, energy and the environment. Each analyses the challenges that the country's leading institutions face in making, shaping and implementing the tailored policies that are being designed to change the country's future. In doing so, they reveal the factors that either currently facilitate or constrain effective and viable domestic policymaking and governance in the Kingdom. The study offers new and ground-breaking research based on the first-hand experiences of academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who have privileged access to Saudi Arabia. At a time when analysis and reportage on Saudi Arabia usually highlights the 'high politics' of foreign policy, this book sheds light on the 'low politics' to show the extent to which Saudi policy, society, economics and culture is changing"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 6 List of illustrations 8 Acknowledgements 10 Contributors 12 Abbreviations 18 Introduction: Setting the scene: Governance and domestic policymaking in Saudi Arabia Mark C. Thompson and Neil Quilliam 22 PART 1 Making policy in Saudi Arabia 36 1 Is evidence used for policymaking in Saudi Arabia?: Lessons from an international research-policy partnership in labour policy Ammar A. Malik 38 2 How can Saudi Arabia better coordinate divergent economic reform agendas?: Lessons from the Scandinavian model of state–business relations Faris Al-Sulayman and Makio Yamada 62 3 King-makers or knaves?: The role of consultants in domestic policymaking and governance in Saudi Arabia David B. Jones 86 PART 2 Putting policies into practice 112 4 Gulf Research Meeting 2019: Beyond the glitter factor: Building defence capacity in King Salman’s Saudi Arabia D. B. Des Roches 114 5 Young people and vocational education choices in Saudi Arabia: Implications for aligning policy with aspirations Hanaa Almoaibed 136 6 Causes of obesity and public policy Wareed Alenaini 166 PART 3 Governance challenges: Managing energy and environmental policies 188 7 Energy Governance: Is the new meeting the old in Saudi Arabia’s energy industries? Jessica Obeid 190 8 In search of legitimacy: Environmental policymaking in Saudi Arabia Tobias Zumbrägel 218 9 Factoring climate action into Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification and stimulus measures: Politics, challenges and opportunities Aisha Al-Sarihi 246 10 Last man standing: Saudi Aramco and global climate action Jim Krane 278 Afterword Mark C. Thompson and Neil Quilliam 312 Index 318 Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Plan 2020 are governmental initiatives to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and implement nationwide social changes. Media and scholarly attention often describe the success or failure of these ambitions visions. This book shifts the focus to instead examine and evaluate the actual processes of domestic policymaking and governance that are being mapped out to achieve them. The book is unique in its breadth, with case studies from across different sectors including labour markets, defence, health, youth, energy and the environment. Each author analyses the challenges that the country's leading institutions face in making, shaping and implementing the tailored policies that are being designed to change the country's future. In doing so, they reveal the factors that either currently facilitate or constrain effective and viable domestic policymaking and governance in the Kingdom. The study offers new and ground-breaking research based on the first-hand experiences of academics, researchers, policy-makers and practitioners who have privileged access to Saudi Arabia. At a time when analysis and reportage on Saudi Arabia usually highlights the 'high politics' of foreign policy, this book sheds light on the 'low politics' to show the extent to which Saudi policy, society, economics and culture is changing