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0 pointsmamonster2y ago0 comments

I don't know if oligarchy is the correct word, its more like a union of 7 mini-monarchies.

UAE is doing so well for (mainly) 2 reasons:

1) The Shakhbut coup in Abu Dhabi

2) Abu Dhabi and Dubai buried the hatchet to form UAE(there was a lot of bad blood between the 2 states, but because Rashid bin Saeed and Zayed bin Sultan were way above average as far as authoritarians go they managed to avoid stupid conflicts and focused on cashing in on the oil).

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JumpCrisscross2y ago

> I don't know if oligarchy is the correct word, its more like a union of 7 mini-monarchies

Fair enough. And as you describe, it's more a diarchy of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Nevertheless, structurally different from the absolute monarchies around them.

alephnerd2y ago

It's basically just Abu Dhabi now, because they bailed out Dubai's housing sector on multiple occasion - in 2009 [0], 2019 [1], 2020 [2], and (down the grapevine) I've heard they might be providing an additional bailout to Dubai soon.

Furthermore, Saudi has started requiring companies that are operating in Saudi to operate a Saudi office, and won't give tenders to those who are managing the relationship remotely from Dubai now, so companies have started moving staff to Riyadh.

> Nevertheless, structurally different from the absolute monarchies around them

MbS is trying to remake KSA into an Abu Dhabi 2.0, as MbZ was his mentor

[0] - https://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/12/14/dubai.10.billion.bai...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN1PU1LI/

[2] - https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22R23G/

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