This post is a supplement to my last post on the municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, intended to provide a summary overview of the situation in that country. First I suggest that you read Daniel Drezner’s article on the Saudi elections. It covers most of the territory, but make sure you read the comments, as a couple of them (one by myself) point out inadequacies.

Second, if you have not already, read my post below, An Islamist Perspective on Saudi Elections. Drezner’s article mainly deals with the moderate reformists and the politically dominant Saudi-Wahhabi bloc, but my post deals with a third group, the radical Wahhabis sympathetic to Osama bin Laden, who are also vying for power in that country. There are no scientific polls on which of these three groups is genuinely dominant, but based on anecdotal evidence I would say that about 80-90% of the population is divided between the pro-democracy reformists and the pro-bin Laden Wahhabis, with not a great deal of support for the Saudi bloc.

For more information on Saudi Arabia, check out Michael Doran’s article in the January/February 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs (subscription required), “The Schizophrenic Saudi State.” For a concise history of the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance, you may check out the relevant sections of my book. For a fuller history, see Madawi Al-Rasheed’s book A History of Saudi Arabia. For a more entertaining read, see Robert Baer’s excellent if anecdote-dependent book Sleeping With The Devil: How Washington Sold our Soul for Saudi Crude.

Contributed by Kirk H. Sowell at Window on the Arab World, and More!