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$Title{Kuwait
Chapter 2A.   The Political System}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Darrel R. Eglin;Donald M. Seekins}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{al
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sabah
kuwait
members
amir
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ministers
national
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}
$Date{1984}
$Log{See Gate at Old Wall*0037701.scf
See Old Fisherman*0037703.scf
}
Title:       Kuwait
Book:        Persian Gulf States, An Area Study: Kuwait
Author:      Darrel R. Eglin;Donald M. Seekins
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 2A.   The Political System

[See Gate at Old Wall: Courtesy Embassy of Kuwait, Washington DC]

     The modern political history of Kuwait was launched in the early
eighteenth century, when a number of families of the Utbi section of the
Anayzah tribe ended their migration at the location of the present-day city of
Kuwait (see Internal Migrations and Political Developments, ch. 1). In 1756
these settlers decided to appoint the head of the most prestigious family
among them, the Al Sabah, as their local shaykh (see Glossary), who would
provide security and represent them to the ruling Ottoman Turks. For nearly
two centuries afterward there would be little change in the style of rule by
successive Al Sabah shaykhs. Kuwait was ruled as a dynastic, tribal
shaykhdom, and the amir was chosen by senior members of the Al Sabah. Although
his rule was autocratic, decisions were made after consultation with senior
family members and others within the tightly knit Kuwaiti community. Merchant
families in particular were consulted, for the Al Sabah relied heavily on
the taxation of trade for their own livelihood. Tribal leaders were also
consulted periodically when the amir held diwaniyya (also known as majlis-
see Glossary), gatherings at which those with wasta (roughly equivalent to
influence) could make requests of the leadership.

     Throughout the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Kuwait
remained an undistinguished part of the Arabian holdings of the Ottoman
Empire. Being tiny and of meager wealth, Kuwait never came under direct
Ottoman rule. Shaykh Abdallah Al Sabah (1866-92) recognized Ottoman
suzerainty over Kuwait, however, by his payment of tribute and his acceptance
of the title of Qaimaqam (Commandant) under the Ottoman administration located
in Basrah (in present-day Iraq). His successor, Mubarak (1896-1915), fearing
Ottoman occupation of Kuwait, signed an agreement with the British in which
he agreed not to enter into any foreign relationships without British consent
in return for an annual British subsidy. Henceforth, Kuwait was, in effect,
protected by the British naval presence in the Gulf; this relationship was
formalized in a 1914 British declaration that "the British Government does
recognize and admit that the Shaykhdom of Kuwait is an independent Government
under British protection."

     Although Mubarak had come to power (in what was the first and last
violent succession in Kuwait's history) after killing two of his half
brothers, his period of rule was considered highly successful and earned him
the title of "Mubarak the Great." He was able to establish that future
succession would pass exclusively through his heirs. Two of his sons ruled
only briefly before their deaths; the second, Salim (1917-21), sided with
the Ottomans during World War I, thus incurring a blockade of Kuwait and
considerable hardship for its citizens. Mubarak's grandson, Ahmad al
Jabir, succeeded his uncle in 1921 and ruled successfully for nearly three
decades.

     Ahmad's rule had rather inauspicious beginnings, however. "On the death
of Shaykh Salim," according to British historian H.R.P. Dickson, "the
townspeople, tired of unnecessary war into which they had been led against
their will, determined that in the future they would have some say in the
affairs of state. They informed members of the Al Sabah family that they
would accept as their ruler only one who would assent to a council of
advisers." Ahmad did appoint a 12-member council, headed by a leading
merchant, though the council barely functioned during its short life span. In
the following year Kuwait's boundaries were set at the Uqair conference,
attended by Abd al Aziz Al Saud of Najd in present-day Saudi Arabia and
representatives of Iraq and Britain. There was little that Ahmad could do,
despite his unhappiness with the results of this 1922 conference in which
there had been no Kuwaiti representation.

     A second call for political reform led to the establishment in 1937-38 of
a 14-member Legislative Assembly composed of commoners. The new Assembly soon
sought the loosening of ties between Kuwait and Britain and the redirecting of
Kuwaiti revenues-which accrued directly to the Al Sabah-toward the public
good. Before long the Assembly was dissolved by Ahmad, and its members were
imprisoned. The very establishment of a legislative body, however, set a
precedent on the Arabian Peninsula and served to foreshadow Kuwait's
postindependence National Assembly.

     As an alternative to the Assembly, Ahmad set up a legislative council
that, though of extremely limited authority itself, did establish a number of
governmental departments-each headed by a member of the Al Sabah, who ran it
as a personal fiefdom-that were the nucleus of the modern governmental
administration. These departments grew in size and scope under the rule of
Ahmad's cousin, Shaykh Abdallah al Salim (1950-65), when massive oil revenues
first became available to the government.

     Abdallah also oversaw, on June 19, 1961, the termination of the 1899
agreement with the British, an act that was tantamount to Kuwait's achieving
full independence. Abdallah added the title of amir to his name. Six days
later President Abd al Karim Qasim of Iraq publicly claimed all of Kuwait's
territory for Iraq. In response, Abdallah requested immediate British
military assistance and, as gestures aimed at national concilation in the face
of the Iraqi threat, asked a number of leading merchants to participate in the
government and authorized the election of a constituent assembly to draft a
new constitution.

The Constitutional Monarchy

     On November 11, 1962, Amir Abdallah approved and promulgated the
Constitution as written by the Constituent Assembly. The 183-article
Constitution remained unchanged until August 1976, when four articles
(concerning the dissolution of the legislature and freedom of the press) were
suspended. They were reinstated four years later, however, and the
Constitution remained intact during the early 1980s. In 1982 the government
submitted 16 constitutional amendments that, among other things, would have
allowed the amir to declare martial laws for an extended period and would
have increased both the size of the legislature and the length of term of
office. In May 1983 the proposals were formally dropped, however, after
several months of legislative debate. Discussions continued to surface
occasionally within both the executive and the legislative branches, however,
on the need to amend the Constitution in light of two decades of experience
with the coexistence of monarchical and democratic forms of government.

     The Constitution declares that Kuwait is an Arab state. Islam is the
religion of the state, and sharia is "a main source of legislation." Kuwait
is further defined as "a hereditary Amirate, the succession to which shall be
in the descendants of the late Mubarak Al Sabah." The system of government is
defined in Article 6 as "democratic, under which sovereignty resides in the
people, the source of all powers."

     Before the governmental system is detailed further, the rights and duties
of citizens and the social role of the state are defined in articles 7 through
49. Individual rights are extensive and include personal liberty and equality
before the law, freedom to hold beliefs and express opinions, and freedom of
the press. Residences are inviolable, torture and deportation of Kuwaiti
citizens are prohibited, and the accused are assumed innocent until proven
guilty. Also guaranteed is the freedom to form associations and trade unions.
Duties include national defense, the observance of public order and respect
for public morals, and the payment of taxes. The social obligations of the
state expressed in the Constitution lay the basis for Kuwait's extensive
welfare system (see Health and Welfare, this ch.). The state is
constitutionally obligated to care for the young, ensure aid for citizens who
are old, sick, or unable to work, promote public education, and care for the
public health.

     These rights and obligations apply only to Kuwaiti citizens, however, and
legislation passed in 1959 and 1960 strictly defined citizens as those present
in and before 1920 and their descendants. In the early 1980s only about 40
percent of the population were Kuwaiti citizens under this restrictive
definition (see Population, this ch.). The remainder of the population are
given due process under the law but have few other political and civil rights
and enjoy restricted access to the benefits of the state system of welfare.

The Executive

     Article 50 of the Constitution states that "the system of government is
based on the principle of separation of powers" among the executive,
legislative, and judicial branches. This principle is not strictly adhered
to, however, for cabinet officers sit as ex officio members of the
legislature. Although the executive is clearly the most powerful branch of
the government, the mere existence of an elected legislature and partial
adherence to the separation of powers made Kuwait the most liberal and
democratic government on the Arabian Peninsula. The restraint on the power of
the executive conforms to Kuwaiti tradition: the Al Sabah have never held the
absolute power over decisionmaking of the Al Saud in Saudi Arabia, for
example, but have always shared power with local tribal leaders and wealthy
merchants.

     Executive power is vested in the amir and, under him, the Council of
Ministers, which by tradition is led by the amir's heir apparent, who acts as
prime minister. The amir, who rules for life, is the head of state as well as
supreme commander of the armed forces. He holds the power to appoint and
dismiss virtually every senior executive official, including the heir apparent
(who must be appointed within one year of succession of a new amir and be
approved by the legislature), all cabinet officers, local governors, and
officers in the armed forces. The amir also holds the power to initiate,
sanction, and promulgate laws, although all laws must be approved by the
legislature.

     Since the death of Shaykh Mubarak in 1915, succession has alternated
(with only one exception) between the two branches of the Al Sabah defined by
two of Mubarak's sons, Jabir and Salim (see fig. 7). This one exception
occurred upon the death of Abdallah in 1965, when instead of being passed to
a cousin in the Jabir branch, the throne was passed to a half brother, Sabah
al Salim. To placate the Jabirs, a large number of them were named to high
government posts, and its senior member, Jabir al Ahmad al Jabir, was named
as prime minister and heir apparent. Upon the death of Sabah in 1977, Jabir
succeeded to the throne at age 51. The following year he named a cousin,
Saad al Abdallah al Salim Al Sabah, as heir apparent, thus reestablishing the
tradition of alternating succession.

     Candidates for succession are also subject to the criteria of seniority
and individual competence. Outside observers attributed the extraordinary 1965
succession to these factors (that no candidate from the Jabir branch met the
standards of Sabah al Salim in terms of seniority and competence) rather than
to any malevolence between the two family branches. These observers noted that
intrafamily quarrels surrounding succession, such as sometimes presented
serious problems to other Arabian monarchies, had been quite successfully
resolved by the Al Sabah after more than two centuries of continuous family
rule.

     In the early 1980s the Jabir and Salim branches also held all the highest
positions within the security apparatus (see Kuwait, ch. 7). Many members of
other family branches did hold high posts in other government endeavors,
however. Furthermore, senior members of all branches of the Al Sabah were
consulted in family councils, where the most important policies (including
succession) were formulated through family consensus. In 1984 the senior
member of the Al Sabah was 81-year-old Abdallah al Jabir al Abdallah. Though
not a descendant of Mubarak, he was consulted regularly and held the title of
special adviser to the amir. Furthermore, at that time Prime Minister Saad was
said to have particularly good relations with branches of the Al Sabah other
than the Jabir and Salim, thus raising the prospect that these other branches
of the family might play an increasing role in government in the future.

     The Al Sabah also played an important role within the Council of
Ministers (also known as the cabinet). Twelve of 15 members in the original
postindependence Council of Ministers appointed in January 1962 were from the
royal family, but widespread criticism led to their numbers dropping markedly
in 1964. During the two subsequent decades, from one-third to one-half of the
Council of Ministers consisted of members of the Al Sabah. In 1984, for
example, six of 15 cabinet members were from the royal family (of these, two
were from the Jabir branch, two from the Salim, and two from other branches of
the family). Although a minority, these six headed the key ministries dealing
with financial and security affairs. The 10 other ministers were mostly highly
educated technocrats put in charge of the country's development projects and
social programs. Two ministers, however, were from families of the traditional
Kuwaiti merchant elite. Only one, Minister of Communications Isa Muhammad
Ibrahim al Mazidi, was a Shia; all the rest of the cabinet officers were
Sunni.

     There were actually 20 positions on the Council of Ministers, but,
because of constitutional restrictions that the cabinet could not be larger
than one-third the size of the 50-member National Assembly, a number of
ministers held multiple portfolios. In June 1984 Deputy Prime Minister Sabah
al Ahmad al Jabir Al Sabah was also minister of foreign affairs as well as
minister of information, for example. Ali al Khalifa al Athbi Al Sabah (said
to be the most competent of all the royal ministers) was minister of finance
and minister of oil. Abd ar Rahman Abdallah al Awadi was both minister of
planning and of public health, while Hamad Isa al Rujayb was minister of
social affairs and labor and minister of housing. Portfolios that received the
undivided attention of a cabinet official were the ministries of waqfs
(religious endowments) and Islamic affairs; commerce and industry;
communications; defense; education; electricity and water; interior; public
works; and justice, legal, and administrative affairs. Finally, Minister of
State for Cabinet Affairs Abd al Aziz Husayn, who acted as the government's
chief press spokesman, also sat on the Council of Ministers. The Council was
headed by Saad al Abdallah al Salim Al Sabah, as it had been since 1978, when
he was first appointed prime minister and heir apparent. Two ministers who
were not cabinet members were Special Adviser to the Amir Abd ar Rahman Salim
al Atiqi, who previously had acted as minister of finance, and Khalid al Ahmad
al Jabir Al Sabah (half brother to the amir), who was minister in charge of
the amir's diwaniyya affairs.

     The Council of Ministers is constitutionally obligated to resign upon
the election of a new National Assembly, which normally occurs every four
years. It also resigns upon the death of an amir, when the prime minister
normally succeeds to the throne and a new prime minister is named. In
practice, many of the same ministers have been reappointed on these occasions,
and the composition of the cabinet has remained fairly stable. For example,
the new Council of Ministers formed in February 1978, following the death of
Amir Sabah al Salim, contained only two new members. Five ministers were
dropped from the council in March 1981 following the February National
Assembly elections.

     Ministers are appointed and removed by the amir upon the recommendation
of the prime minister. Although the prime minister presides over meetings of
the Council of Ministers, the constitutional responsibility of each minister
for the affairs of his ministry is to the amir. A minister can also be subject
to a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly, in which case he must
resign. The prime minister is immune from such a vote, but if the National
Assembly decides that it cannot work with a prime minister, the matter is
referred to the amir, who must either dismiss the Council of Ministers or
dissolve the National Assembly. The ministers-who under normal circumstances
act as ex officio members of the National Assembly-do not vote during any such
crisis between the executive and the legislature.

     Many autonomous agencies and public corporations, such as the Kuwait
Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development
(KFAED), were under the authority of the Council of Ministers. Their
employees, along with those of the ministries themselves, made up the bulk of
the nation's civil servants. After independence the number of civil servants
grew along with government revenues and the increased role of government in
society. Civil servants totaled some 52,000 in 1966, 90,000 in 1972, 116,000
in 1976, and 144,000 in 1983. Non-Kuwaitis were counted on heavily to staff
government posts; in 1976 they accounted for fully 60 percent of all civil
servants, and in 1983 the figure had grown to 65 percent despite growing
political pressures to lower this percentage by training Kuwaitis to replace
the (largely Palestinian) non-Kuwaitis, who were needed to make the
still-growing government apparatus function (see Labor Force, this ch.).

     Local government-understandably not highly developed because of the
nation's small size-was administered through the Ministry of Interior. The
country was divided into four provincial governorates, each named after its
principal city: Kuwait City, Hawalli, Al Ahmadi, and Al Jahrah. All
governors were appointed by the amir; in the early 1980s all were Al Sabah
family members except the governor for Al Jahrah, which had only become a
separate administrative subdivision in the late 1970s. The primary
responsibility of the governors lay in the enforcement of security in their
local jurisdictions.

     Another organ of local government was the 16-member (10 elected, six
appointed by the amir) Municipal Council. This one council apparently had
responsibility for municipal services-such as public health, garbage
collection, and city planning-in all of Kuwait's cities. The Municipal
Council worked closely with the governorates in such matters.

Legislature

[See Old Fisherman: Courtesy Embassy of Kuwait, Washington DC]

     The most remarkable aspect of the Kuwaiti governmental system is its
unicameral National Assembly-the only elected legislative body in the
Arabian Peninsula in the early 1980s. The authors of the Constitution,
aware of the precedent set in the 1937-38 Legislative Assembly, saw the
creation of an elected legislative body as an important means to widen the
popular consensus and thereby further legitimize the rule of the Al Sabah
at a time when the family's position was threatened by the Iraqi claim to
the entire territory of the new nation. Since the January 1963 election of
the first National Assembly, it has evolved into a wider role, including
that of acting as a forum for political opponents of the regime. Although
the Constitution affords the Assembly considerable powers, it is limited
by two major restrictions: the small size of the electorate as defined by
law, and the power of the amir to dissolve the Assembly virtually at will.
These restrictions greatly inhibit the activities of the Assembly and have
had the effect of making it, in the words of a United States Department of
State publication, "a body to review government policy and programs and to
make recommendations." Even at that the National Assembly provided the most
open political forum among the nations of the Gulf and was responsible for
Kuwait's being far ahead of its neighbors in terms of democratic
institutions and the free expression of ideas.

     The Assembly consists of 50 members elected to four-year terms (there
are no restrictions on being reelected) and the members of the Council of
Ministers, who sit as ex officio members. It is in session once a year for
at least eight months. A Speaker and deputy Speaker are elected at the
beginning of each new term; in 1981 former minister of public works
Muhammad Yusif al Adasani was elected as Speaker until 1985. Each year new
members are elected to eight standing committees within the National
Assembly. Three of the more important of these are the Legislative and
Legal Committee, the Financial and Economic Committee, and the Foreign
Affairs Committee. Ex officio members cannot be elected to committees.

     Bills may be initiated in the Assembly or within the executive
branch. Bills passed by a simple majority in the Assembly must then be
sanctioned by the amir before becoming law. Failing that, a two-thirds
majority in the Assembly (which is extremely difficult to achieve, given
that one-fourth to one-third of the members of the Assembly are, in effect,
representatives of the amir) will override the amir's veto. The bill will
also become law if it is introduced again the following year and is passed
once more by a simple majority. Likewise, laws promulgated by the amir
must be approved by a majority vote within the National Assembly. If it is
not in session at the time, the law must be introduced when the Assembly
is next convened. Among the most important considerations of the Assembly
are the approval of each year's state budget and the approval of all
treaties with foreign governments. In addition to its legislative powers,
the National Assembly has the power of interpellation over members of the
Council of Ministers.

     The restricted nature of the electorate-voters had to be literate
males over the age of 21 who could trace their descent to inhabitants of
Kuwait prior to 1920-made the National Assembly representative of only a
small elite within Kuwaiti society. The first Assembly was elected in 1963
by a mere 17,000 voters; in the February 1981 elections the electorate was
still below 40,000. At that time it was estimated that some 90,000 Kuwaitis
were eligible to vote, but fewer than half of those bothered to register.
Ninety-two percent of the nearly 412,000 registered voters participated in
that election; this amounted to less than 3 percent of the nation's
population of about 1.4 million.

     Prior to 1981 Kuwait had been divided into 10 districts (known as
constituencies) for electoral purposes, and each district elected five
members to the Assembly. Before the 1981 election the country was
reapportioned to create 25 constituencies, each electing two members.
Some constituencies henceforth had as few as 2,000 inhabitants, and
elections in such areas necessarily had the flavor of family affairs.
Because there were no political parties, all candidates ran as individuals;
in 1981 some 447 persons competed for 50 Assembly seats. The victors were
those with the two largest pluralities in each constituency.

     Although political parties were illegal, voting blocs inevitably
emerged within the Assembly. The most prominent political dynamic played
out in the Assembly was between those supporting the Al Sabah regime and
those in opposition. The traditional opposition within the Assembly first
emerged in 1965, when 12 members formed an Arab nationalist bloc that
opposed the regime from a leftist, antimonarchist, and Pan-Arab point of
view. Their leader was, and continued to be almost two decades later,
Ahmad al Khatib of the Arab Nationalist Movement, an organization that had
been founded by the radical Palestinian leader George Habash. The Arab
nationalist bloc lost all but four seats in the 1967 election (which was
protested to no avail by numerous persons and organizations who charged
fraud), and the opposition remained weak in the Assembly elected in 1971.
The 1975 elections, however, produced a National Assembly in which fully
one-third of its membership was counted among the Arab nationalist bloc.

     Assembly debates grew increasingly strident during 1975 and 1976.
Those regarding oil policies and social policies brought public attention
to the growing disparities of personal wealth within Kuwait and on
occasion brought explicit verbal attacks on the ruling family. Middle
Eastern politics became another central issue in the Assembly, for the Arab
nationalist opposition championed the Palestinian cause. The ruling family
came to view these activities as dangerous to Kuwait's internal security
and contrary to its foreign policy interest. In mid-1976 the Assembly
adopted a pro-Palestinian resolution that condemned Syrian involvement in
the Lebanese civil war-in direct opposition to the government's officially
neutral position-and on August 19 the amir ordered the National Assembly
dissolved. Using a revised constitution during the next four and one-half
years, Kuwait's legislature consisted of six appointed legislative committees
under the Council of Ministers.

     The redistricting that took place before the 1981 elections, together
with new emphases that had developed in Arab politics during the previous
five years, had a devastating effect on the Arab nationalist opposition in
the National Assembly; every one of its candidates was defeated in February
1981. Beduin tribal leaders, traditionally the element most loyal to the Al
Sabah, garnered 23 of the 50 seats being contested; loyal moderates and
technocrats gained another 13 seats; members of the Shia community, which
had 10 seats in 1975, won only four in 1981; and Sunni fundamentalists, a
new element in the Kuwaiti political spectrum, won five seats. The
fundamentalists were henceforth the only opposition in the Assembly. Between
1981 and 1984 the fundamentalists introduced numerous initiatives designed
to enforce greater compliance with Islamic practices: citizenship was barred
to non-Muslims, importation of alcoholic beverages was prohibited, and
schoolrooms were segregated by sex. As of 1984 repeated fundamentalist efforts
to amend the Constitution to make sharia the sole basis of Kuwaiti law had
been unsuccessful (see Politics and the Social Order, this ch.).

The Judiciary

     The Constitution guarantees the independence of the judiciary and
designates the Supreme Council of the Judiciary as its highest body and
guarantor of judicial independence. The constitutional basis for the legal
system, the organization of the judiciary, and the codification of law were
derived from a number of sources. The framework of various other Arab states
was important, particularly that of Egypt, Iraq, and Bahrain. Traces of the
French legal code were borrowed from the Egyptian system, and elements of
English common law entered Kuwait via Bahrain. The Kuwaiti system also relies
on the Islamic legal provisions of the Majalla, the Ottoman Civil Code of
1876. In the areas of civil and personal status law, the legal system reflects
the conservative and unifying force of sharia. Matters of personal status were
based on the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence; civil codes were based
on the Hanafi school (see The Early Period, ch. 1).

     The lowest level of the court system consisted of four separate
divisions: personal status, civil, commercial, and criminal courts. Kuwait
had a number of each of these courts of first instance or, as they were
sometimes known, courts of general session. At the next level was the High
Court of Appeal, having two chambers-one for civil matters and the other for
commercial and criminal cases. This court dealt exclusively with appeals from
the lower courts. Appeals from the high court went to the Supreme Court of
Appeal, which also ruled on the constitutionality of laws. The amir acted as
the final source of judicial appeal and as a source of pardon, and he reviewed
all convictions for capital offenses.

     Two specialized courts were the Military Court, which only tried cases
involving infractions of military law by members of the armed forces, and
the State Security Court, which has been convened only on rare occasions in
order to try political cases (see Kuwait, ch. 7). The State Security Court
was first created in September 1975 and was reconvened in December 1983 in
order to try 25 individuals accused of the multiple terrorist bombings
perpetrated earlier that month.

     The Constitution calls for the creation of two other judicial organs.
The Public Prosecution Office supervises the affairs of the judicial police,
the enforcement of penal laws, the pursuit of offenders, and the execution of
the judgments of the court. The Council of State acts as the principal
administrative body of the judiciary. It also drafts bills and regulations
concerning the judiciary and renders legal advice to the citizenry.