دانشگاه شاهد جامعه‌شناسی سیاسی جهان اسلام 2980-9371 12 1 2024 03 20 A Comparative Study of Government Performance and the Status of Civil Society in the Two Countries of Saudi Arabia and Egypt (1980-2010) بررسی تطبیقی عملکرد دولت و وضعیت جامعه مدنی در دو کشور عربستان سعودی و مصر (1980-2010) 211 238 4923 10.22070/iws.2025.20269.2422 FA رضا دهبانی پور استادیار حقوق بین الملل، گروه علوم سیاسی، دانشگاه یاسوج، یاسوج، ایران سید آیت الله کشاورز کارشناسی ارشد علوم سیاسی، دانشگاه یاسوج. علی مختاری استادیار علوم سیاسی، گروه علوم سیاسی، دانشگاه یاسوج، یاسوج، ایران حمداله اکوانی دانشیار علوم سیاسی، گروه علوم سیاسی، دانشگاه یاسوج، یاسوج، ایران Journal Article 2023 09 18 This research aims to study the relationship between the government and civil society in Egypt and Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2010, using a comparative method to clarify how this relationship can lead to the activation of civil society. In the Middle East, the government plays a crucial role as a determining factor in the extent of civil society's activation. The relationship between the government and society can be analyzed through four key dimensions: the government's weakness due to its failure to fulfill promises, the cultural alienation of the government from society, the political impact of economic adjustment, and the role of social actors in mobilizing society within civil society activities. The study's findings indicate that the Egyptian government failed to meet its economic and political commitments, which compelled it to implement economic adjustment and liberalization policies. This, in turn, increased the cultural and social distance between the government and society, allowing social actors such as the Muslim Brotherhood to engage actively in civil society. In contrast, the Saudi Arabian government, benefiting from oil revenues, was able to fulfill its economic promises and avoid implementing economic adjustment policies. In this way, by relying on its religious and national traditions and norms, it controlled the social forces and classes within civil society, thereby limiting the areas in which civil society could become active. Extended Abstract <strong>Introduction: </strong>This study offers a comparative analysis of state–society relations and civil society development in Egypt and Saudi Arabia from 1980 to 2010, a period marked by major regional and global transformations. These decades were shaped by economic globalization, shifts in the international political economy, and increasing pressures for political reform across the Middle East. Despite sharing cultural, linguistic, and religious similarities as two major Arab states, Egypt and Saudi Arabia followed sharply divergent trajectories. By the end of this period, Egypt had experienced growing social mobilization that culminated in the 2011 revolution and the overthrow of a long-standing authoritarian regime. Saudi Arabia, in contrast, maintained political continuity, with civil society remaining highly constrained under a resilient monarchical system. The central aim of this study is to explain this divergence. Moving beyond cultural determinism and mono-causal economic explanations, it focuses on state performance and strategic choice. It argues that differences in political economy, state capacity, and legitimacy fundamentally shaped the opportunities and constraints facing civil society actors. By systematically comparing Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the study seeks to clarify how state strategies can either enable societal mobilization or effectively suppress it. <strong>Methodology: </strong>The research employs a comparative approach, which is central to causal analysis in political science. It adopts a structured, focused comparison of Egypt and Saudi Arabia over a defined historical period, allowing for the identification of key variables and causal mechanisms. The methodology is qualitative and interpretive, relying on process tracing to examine how state policies evolved and how societal actors responded over time. Rather than focusing on static institutional features, the analysis emphasizes dynamic interactions between economic structures, legitimacy strategies, and social forces. Empirically, the study is based on an extensive review of secondary sources, including academic books, peer-reviewed journal articles, historical studies, and reports from international organizations. These materials are synthesized to construct a coherent explanation for the activation or suppression of civil society in each case. <strong>Analysis and Findings:</strong> The comparative analysis shows that the divergent trajectories of civil society in Egypt and Saudi Arabia can be explained by three interrelated factors: economic performance and the social contract, sources of legitimacy, and the configuration of key social actors. First, economic performance played a decisive role. In Egypt, economic liberalization policies initiated under Anwar Sadat and reinforced under Hosni Mubarak produced uneven outcomes. Structural adjustment programs contributed to crony capitalism, rising unemployment—particularly among educated youth—persistent corruption, and growing inequality. As the state failed to deliver economic security and social mobility, its social contract eroded, generating widespread grievances. Civil society organizations increasingly emerged to fill gaps in welfare provision and to articulate political discontent. By contrast, Saudi Arabia’s rentier political economy enabled the state to sustain a distributive social contract financed by oil revenues. Through subsidies, public-sector employment, free social services, and direct financial transfers, the regime fostered material dependence and political acquiescence. Fiscal autonomy from taxation reduced pressures for accountability and deprived civil society of economic grievances as a mobilizing force. Second, legitimacy and ideological alignment were critical. In Egypt, the state’s secular and modernist orientation often conflicted with the religious sensibilities of large segments of society. The repression of Islamist movements, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, further alienated these groups and weakened regime legitimacy. In Saudi Arabia, legitimacy was rooted in a long-standing alliance between the ruling family and the Wahhabi religious establishment. This partnership provided religious justification for monarchical rule while allowing the state to co-opt religious institutions as instruments of social control, preventing them from becoming independent centers of opposition. Third, the autonomy of key social actors shaped patterns of mobilization. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood emerged as a powerful societal force by building extensive networks of social services, education, and religious institutions that compensated for state failures and generated deep grassroots support. These networks operated alongside labor movements, student groups, secular intellectuals, and later youth activists, collectively expanding the space for dissent. In Saudi Arabia, however, the most influential potential social actor—the religious establishment—was firmly incorporated into the state. Other groups, including liberal intellectuals, Shiite activists, and women’s rights advocates, faced strict repression, preventing the formation of sustained and autonomous civil society organizations. <strong>Conclusion: </strong>The divergent civil society trajectories of Egypt and Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 2010 were not culturally predetermined but resulted from distinct state strategies embedded in different political economies. Egypt’s weakening social contract, combined with economic mismanagement, legitimacy deficits, and the presence of resilient social actors, gradually eroded regime authority and enabled mass mobilization. Saudi Arabia’s experience demonstrates the stabilizing capacity of a resource-rich rentier state, where distributive policies, ideological co-optation, and organizational control effectively demobilized society and ensured regime persistence. Overall, this study highlights that civil society development in the Arab world is best understood as a function of state performance and strategy rather than cultural predisposition. این پژوهش با روش مقایسه‌ای به مطالعه رابطه دولت و جامعه مدنی در دو کشور مصر و عربستان سعودی در مقطع زمانی 1980- 2010 می‌پردازد تا روشن شود که چگونه رابطه دولت و جامعه می‌تواند به فعال شدن جامعه مدنی منجر شود؟ دولت در خاورمیانه به عنوان عنصر تعیین کننده نقش مؤثری در میزان فعال شدن جامعه مدنی دارد. رابطه دولت با جامعه در قالب چهار محور «ضعف دولت به واسطه شکست در انجام وعده‌ها، بیگانگی فرهنگی دولت نسبت به جامعه، تأثیر سیاسی تعدیل اقتصادی و وجود بازیگران اجتماعی جهت بسیج جامعه» بر میزان فعالیت جامعه مدنی قابل بحث و بررسی است. یافته‌های تحقیق نشان می‌دهد که دولت در مصر در تحقق وعده‌های اقتصادی و سیاسی خود ناکام بوده و در نتیجه، ناچار شد اقدام به تعدیل و آزادسازی اقتصادی نماید. این امر فاصله و بیگانگی فرهنگی دولت از جامعه را افزایش داد تا بازیگران اجتماعی (اخوان المسلمین) بتوانند به فعالیت در عرصه جامعه مدنی دست بزنند. در مقابل، دولت عربستان سعودی به دلیل برخورداری از رانت‌های نفتی، توانست به وعده‌های اقتصادی خود عمل و از سیاست تعدیل اقتصادی خودداری کند و به این واسطه در کنار تکیه به سنن و هنجارهای دینی و ملی خود، نیروها و طبقات اجتماعی در عرصه جامعه مدنی را کنترل کند و از این طرق زمینه‌های فعال‌ شدن جامعه مدنی را محدود سازد.   https://iws.shahed.ac.ir/article_4923_4fb8a7a22a82c80f2c26fe6c1e0dcbb3.pdf