The challenges of the Saudi democratic transition from the perspective of the 2030 Vision in the framework of Giddens' theory of constructivism

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Doctoral student of International Relations, Faculty of Law, Political Science and Theology, Science and Research Unit, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Islamic Azad University, Research Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran

3 Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Unit, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Saudi Arabia has designed an economic vision called the 2030 Development Plan and has mobilized its resources and policies to achieve it. based on that, the ministries and agencies of Saudi Arabia are obliged to double their capabilities and study important developments from various directions. Saudi Arabia's vision 2030 promotes structural economic changes in the country and promotes transparency, accountability, citizen participation and more open economic and social spaces. This plan, if successful in the long run, can reconfigure the relationship between the government and citizens and change the entire political system. This article tries to answer whether Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision can shape a democratic transition process in this country and ultimately contribute to the democratization of the country. Relying on the concepts of democratic transition, and Giddens' theory of constructivism as a theoretical framework, this article adopts an analytical-descriptive approach to understand the relationship between economic reforms and democratization. The findings of the research indicate that the goals of designing this document on the part of the Saudi government, in response to the events of 2014, were to curb internal and external changes, monopolize power, and grant new legitimacy to the system at home and abroad, and the government, in designing this document, It has not had a desire for democratic reforms, and the disproportion between the economic development planned in the 2030 document and the political development in the traditionalist structure of Saudi Arabia, this document cannot ultimately draw a path towards democracy in this country
 

Conclusions & Suggestions

These factors are considered important and decisive in determining human agents' behaviors. From this viewpoint, the lack of democracy and democratic transition are analyzed considering the political and socio-cultural red flags and constraints in the institutionalized structures. Accordingly, each society develops differently from others, and its political participation is based on its criteria, norms, and historical conditions. Some societies move more slowly and others more quickly toward democratic standards. However, it seems that Saudi Arabia faces numerous and serious obstacles in this path..  .
 
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Keywords

References

 
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