At the apex of the emirate-level governments are the private offices and courts of both the rulers and crown princes. Given Abu Dhabi’s much greater geographic size, it also has ruler’s representatives in both its eastern and western regions, and these also have their own private offices and courts. While it remains possible for unilateral decisions to be made by the rulers’ offices and then issued as decrees, as in other Gulf monarchies, in practise only Abu Dhabi and Dubai’s rulers still exercise this privilege, with most legislation now being crafted by the federal COM. Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah all have emirate-level executive councils, which tend to deal with most domestic matters. In many ways the Abu Dhabi Executive Council — founded in early 1971, before the creation of the UAE — is more powerful than the COM, as it presides over several Abu Dhabi-specific government entities including the influential Supreme Petroleum Council, three municipalities and three police forces (one for the capital and one for each of its two outlying regions), along with a score of recently established Abu Dhabi specific bodies including an education council, an environmental agency, and a tourism authority.
Sharjah’s executive council, although much smaller, operates along similar lines, but it is noteworthy that Dubai’s executive council is far less formal, with its meetings being arranged on a more ad hoc basis, often in the conference suites of business hotels. In some ways, the nature of Dubai’s council is supposed to reflect the emirate’s history as a dynamic business hub, with it often being referred to as ‘Dubai Inc’. Also at the emirate-level, at least in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, are national consultative councils which are supposed to operate in a similar manner to the FNC and have faced similar criticisms. The Abu Dhabi National Consultative Council’s usefulness is particularly questionable given that the Abu Dhabi Executive Council is not required to consider the recommendations that it receives. Moreover, after more than forty years of operation the ADNCC remains entirely appointive, and — incredibly — only three of its current members were first appointed in the last twenty years. None of the members are female, in contrast with the Sharjah National Consultative Council which now has 17 per cent female membership.[164]
In contrast to Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE’s constituent emirates, which were the last of the Gulf monarchies to achieve independence, Oman is actually the oldest independent Arab state. But by the mid-twentieth century its politics were almost equally dominated by Britain, which was not only instrumental in Oman ceding its Gwadar province to Pakistan in 1958 and putting down the aforementioned Dhofar rebellion in the mid-1970s, but also played a central role in installing Oman’s current sultan, Qaboos bin Said Al-Said, in the midst of the conflict. With Qaboos’ father, Said bin Taimur Al-Said, struggling to unite the country, prevent mass emigration, and placate the rebels, Britain judged Qaboos to be the ruling family’s best hope. Thus, in 1970 a British-backed arrest team — claiming the consensus of the rest of the Al-Said dynasty — detained Said and, in something of a repeat of the arrest and removal of Abu Dhabi’s ruler in 1966, he was forced into exile in favour of his younger rival. Since then Qaboos has not faced a direct challenge, or at least not from other members of the ruling family, and after Muammar Gaddafi’s ousting and death in 2011, he is now the Gulf’s longest serving head of state.
After the 1970 coup, which is commonly referred to as Oman’s ‘awakening’ or Renaissance Day,[165] the country’s state formation is best understood as a congerie of the strategies employed by its northerly neighbours. An initial attempt was made by Qaboos to share some degree of power following the appointment of his uncle, Tariq bin Taimur Al-Said, as Oman’s prime minister later in the year. However, unlike the rulers of Kuwait, Bahrain, and more recently Qatar — which all seem to have found benefit in institutionalising the position of prime minister — Qaboos soon took fright at the prospect of any co-existing authority and removed the office in 1971. Since then, in addition to being Oman’s undisputed ruler, Qaboos has been concurrently holding the positions of minister for foreign affairs, minister for defence, director of the Central Bank of Oman, and chief of staff of the armed forces.[166] This meant that Qaboos’ royal court or diwan quickly became something of a ‘super ministry’ in Oman — responsible for most governmental matters connected directly to the national interest.[167] Nevertheless, other ministries continued to exist under the umbrella of a Council of Ministers, and an appointed State Consultative Council was established, ostensibly to advise the government.
In 1990 an appointed Consultative Council or Majlis Al-Shura replaced the existing State Consultative Council. Each of Oman’s fifty-nine tribal districts or wilayat were to nominate three representatives to the council, one of which would be appointed by the sultan himself. And between 1993 and 1997 the system was refined further so that larger wilayat could nominate two candidates each (including women), while the smaller wilayat nominated one candidate. By 2000, with the sultan seemingly recognising the usefulness of having an institution which provided an appearance of representative government without actually having legislative powers, the electorate was greatly expanded. About 25 per cent of the adult population — approximately 175,000 Omanis — were eligible to vote. In 2003 it was expanded again, with full suffrage, and in 2007 another round of elections was conducted for its eighty-three seats. However, as with most of the other Gulf monarchies’ parliaments, the council has remained largely toothless, with its president still being appointed by the sultan, with an executive bureau overseeing its agenda and the activities of its five permanent committees, and with its members remaining unable to compel ministers to respond to questions.[168] Moreover, since 1996 there has also been a State Council or Majlis Al-Dawla, which is supposed to operate in parallel to the Consultative Council and perform much the same duties. Its seventy-three members are entirely appointed by the sultan for four year terms, with most being retired senior government figures, military commanders, judges, and ‘anyone that His Majesty the Sultan deems fit’.[169] As such, it effectively serves as a powerful counterweight to the elected body.
166
110. Valeri, (2011), p. 139; Katz, Mark, ‘Assessing the Political Stability of Oman’,