Refining the Common Good Oil Islam and Politics in Gulf Monarchies 1st Edition By Miriam R. Lowi
Published in late 2024, Refining the Common Good: Oil, Islam and Politics in Gulf Monarchies by Miriam R. Lowi explores how Arab Gulf rulers instrumentalize both oil wealth and Islamic doctrine to maintain dynastic power. Key Thesis and Core ArgumentsThe book challenges "commodity determinism" in resource-curse literature by treating Islam as a resource similar to oil.
- State Power: Ruling elites manipulate religious norms to achieve secular political interests and social control.
- Mutual Influence: Lowi examines how Islamic beliefs shape the allocation of oil revenues and, conversely, how massive oil wealth impacts the interpretation of Islamic doctrine.
- Social Management: Both revenues and religious discourse are used to consolidate autocracy, manage society, and secure the ruling families' privileges.
Case Studies and Framework: Lowi focuses on Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, specifically analyzing four institutionalized practices financed by oil and sanctioned by Islam:
- Government Subsidies and Transfers: How welfare is distributed to ensure legitimacy.
- Employment of Foreign Labor: The political logic behind relying on expatriate workers.
- Charitable Giving: The use of state-directed philanthropy as a political tool ("charity as politics writ small").
- Islamic Banking and Finance: How this sector extends the "fiction of a religious moral order" while fostering elite enrichment.
Publication Details
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 2024).
- Series: Cambridge Middle East Studies.
- Length: Approximately 228–272 pages.
- ISBN-13: 978-1009463287 (Paperback).
About the AuthorMiriam R. Lowi is a Professor of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. Her previous notable works include Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared (2009) and Water and Power (1993).