How Citizenship Informs Political Authority: The Case of Kuwait and Bahrain

Abstract

Both Bahrain and Kuwait’s monarchies use citizenship as a reward and punishment system to maintain political authority. The ability to award or revoke citizenship is perhaps the most important tool for political governance in these two states. At the same time, there is a more nuanced sense of a social – as opposed to political – concept of citizenship that comes into play, which is just as important. Each Persian Gulf nation has undertaken policies to naturalize foreigners and residents (e.g., bidoon, the native-born, but stateless population) to different degrees and in different ways, and each nation has its distinct processes of awarding – or revoking – citizenship. By comparing the historical, social, and political patterns of the integration and exclusion of citizens and non-citizens in Kuwait and Bahrain using an argument that re-evaluates the efficacy of rentier state theory as well as ideas on dynastic monarchism and social and national identity, I aim to explore the political repercussions of citizenship – both for those governing and those who are governed. I also examine the two governments’ laws and practices of naturalization to better understand why and how citizenship is used as a tool for political governance in the Gulf. With Bahrain and Kuwait being such similar states with comparable conditions and welfare benefits to being included, why have their governments followed certain approaches, and why have they differed so extensively in their manipulation of citizenship policies in the past? I argue that the main factors at play in determining the practices of citizenship manipulation in these two nations are 1. The closeness of relations between the merchant elite and the ruling families in Kuwait, but not Bahrain, 2. the ethno-religious fragmentation in Bahrain between the Shia majority and Sunni ruling family, and 3. the bonding effects of the 1990 Iraqi invasion in Kuwait. The variables of socio-political linkages, religious divides, national identity, external threats, and perceived natural resources have produced different responses and results in Kuwait and Bahrain.