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'In a western democracy, you lose touch with your people, you lose elections; in a monarchy, you lose your head'.
Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Former Saudi Ambassador to Washington.
In the last two years Saudi Arabia has gone through many changes. Absolute monarchies are not easy to decipher. There are many opacities and it is very difficult for any outside observer to have a real sense of events. Two main factors are very limited expression by Saudis in their own country and opaque decision making process in the form of decrees with flavor of palace intrigue. A Saudi will not express his honest view in the presence of another Saudi due to the fear factor. In view of these limitations, the perspective of an outsider has severe limitations.
The current system of governance of the country is based on accession to throne of one of the sons of the founder of the country, Abdul Aziz bin Abdur Rahman al-Saud (d. 1953). He works with other family members, especially senior princes, the Council of Ministers (most of whom are also royal family members) and council of Senior clerics in running day to day affairs of the country. There is a fair amount of competition among all these groups about various issues and the King carefully balances his act to avoid open conflict.
In January 2015, Salman bin Abdul Aziz ascended to the Saudi throne after the death of his brother Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. He came quite late into the complex inner power circle of the al Saudi royal family. He was appointed Governor of Riyadh province in 1962; a post he held until 2011 when he was appointed Defence Minister. For five decades, his main influence was in business and media through his sons and a half-brother (Sattam bin Abdul Aziz). His sons controlled different business and media interests. Abdul Aziz was Assistant & Deputy Minister of Oil and now Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Faisal owned Sharq-al-Awst newspaper and was appointed Governor of Medina in 2013. Sultan is a pilot and worked at Saudi Ministry of Information, he now heads the tourism commission with the rank of a Minister. Khalid is also a fighter pilot and in April 2017 he was appointed ambassador...