Economic Reform in the GCC: Privatization as a Panacea for Declining Oil Wealth?

Economic liberalisation through privatisation is unlikely to succeed in the GCC states without simultaneous political liberalisation and reform.

If privatisation simply delivers a set of windfalls for the state while reinforcing traditional patronage networks, this is likely to aggravate the same perceptions of corruption and helplessness that triggered the Arab uprisings from the start of 2011.

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