Abstract: One by one, the governments of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states seem to have resigned themselves to the fact that a broad political reform process and a general overhaul of their respective political systems is both necessary and desirable. The current pressures being exerted upon the existing ruling arrangements make the transition towards a more participatory and liberal political order inevitable. In this context, the focus on current research efforts in terms of the political development process that is taking place in the Gulf should look at the existing and emerging domestic dynamics (population, education, the spread of IT etc.) as much as the prevailing external determinants (consequences of the Iraq War, the US Greater Middle East Initiative etc.), which traditionally have received the majority of attention.

The result of the current environment is that the majority agrees on the need for a reform process but nobody really understands the parameters to follow or the systemic factors driving the process itself. What is particularly lacking is a consideration of the political reform movement from an internal GCC perspective and how the debate in terms of a more participatory and equitable form of political representation is being viewed and formulated within the Gulf societies themselves. This paper takes such an internal view as its point of departure to develop a thorough understanding of the meanings of reform and provide an overview of the key domestic factors that are determining the current path to reform. A related focus is whether outside efforts and discussions about the key elements of a proposed reform strategy are in essence based on the wrong assumptions and are therefore more or less futile attempts that ultimately will have only a very limited impact.