Policymaking in a Transformative State

Review of Policymaking in a Transformative State
Policy-Making in a Transformative State: The Case of Qatar is a collection of scholarly essays, edited by Tok, Alkhater and Pal (2016). The collection addresses the need of Qatar to examine more critically how policies related to health, education, and economic development are being addressed in the country to help it meet its Qatar National Vision to be an advanced country by 2030. The challenge thus far is that Qatari leaders have focused primarily on foreign policy and oil/gas policies. This leaves a large swath of progressive issues untouched.
One of the main challenges that Tok et al. (2016) point out is that the country is populated by more foreigners (working expatriates) than by native Qatari citizens (the latter making up only 300,000 off the 2.3 million population). Qatar is essentially a host of contradictions: it practices Wahhabist Sunni Islam, like Saudi Arabia, and yet women in Qatar enjoy far more freedoms than in the neighboring nation. Women in Qatar have risen to positions of power and leadership in the state and in business; they are the majority among students in Qatar’s Education City (Qatar-America Institute, 2019). On paper the nation has a constitutional monarchy, but in practice the true decision makers are the Al-Thanis, who essentially rule the country. Though political reform has been promised, as Tok et al. (2016) note, the status quo has remained (Lambert, 2011). Yet, Qatar operates fairly smoothly and efficiently and experiences none of the instability that plagues war-torn states like Yemen.
The point that Tok et al. (2016) make is that Qatar is a transformative state and not simply an autocracy. Thus, policymaking in Qatar is unique, as the state is less autocratic than it is a late rentier, pluralized autocracy, tribal democracy, or soft authoritarian state where social transformation is promoted (Gremm, Barth, Fietkiewicz & Stock, 2018; Kassem & Al-Muftah, 2016). What Qatar needs is macro-policy, program oversight and strategic direction so that transformation across all sectors can occur simultaneously. Without simultaneous transformation across all sectors, the 2030 National Vision is unlikely to be achieved, and without macro-policy, oversight and strategic direction total transformation will not be possible.
Currently, Qatar relies heavily upon the industry, knowledge and skills of expatriates and foreign organizations. This is even the case in Education City, where Texas A&M University, Weill Cornell Medical College, Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, and HEC (Hautes Études Commerciale) Paris all have branches (Tok et al., 2016). And while Qatar is a monarchy, ruled by the Al-Thani family, the state also has a Constitution. However, the balance of power favors the Emir, Hassan Al-Sayed shows. Thus, for the time being, there can be no policy-making in Qatar that does not run through the Al-Thani family. This raises a host of challenges and difficulties, if the National Vision 2030 is to be anything more than mere idealistic lip service (Tok et al., 2016).
Jocelyn Sage Mitchell and Leslie A. Pal examine the Qatar National Vision 2030 to show the degree to which it may have been the inspiration of a moment, unsustainable by the centralized nature of the constitutional monarchy in place. The Vision calls for sweeping changes but the likelihood for these changes to take place within the next ten years would be nothing short of miraculous. The changes anticipated would require much more latitude and authority-sharing than is currently the case. Moreover, it would require a self-sufficient Qatar, and that state simply has not emerged.
Nonetheless, Qatar is focused on education, as Alkhater and Baghdady show. The problem is that a rivalry exists between the Old System and the New System. Qatar is very much a divided state in terms of the culture that it seeks to promote through its educational platforms, from K-12 on up to college. The decentralization of the K-12 educational system in Qatar has led to instability, lack of focus, and lack of cohesion, and student achievement has suffered as a result (Tok et al., 2016). There is also social resistance to the enormity that is Education City, as education continues to be viewed with suspicion among those who want to retain Old World views and values. Thus the problem of culture continues to affect Qatar.
Urban development and health care are other issues covered in the book, and neither has been addressed with much success. For all the centralization of power in Qatar, urban development has been remarkably hands-off, with developers being given free reign in many cases to develop as they see fit. Though it has led to some original and creative accomplishments, there is a significant divide between luxury communities and low-class communities, and much development has been conducted cheaply with low-cost materials and without regard to safety. More oversight should have been provided here, yet was not. The vision for health care in Qatar has been idealized by the 2030 Vision, but creating a comprehensive health care system with standards and efficient practices is quite another feat. To support the system, much help from outside has been required.
Qatar is changing and still staying the same in terms of family structure and the role of women. Women are making advancements in leadership positions, yet they also meet resistance from other women who adopt more traditional perspectives. Some families oppose the advancement of women in Qatar and some women are still denied leadership positions because an Old World traditional worldview still prevails. Birthrates are declining in the state and this threatens the family structure, as do lower marriage rates and higher rates of divorce. The same problems that plague the West are now plaguing Qatar, and critics point to liberal, progressive doctrines as the root of the problem.
To achieve the 2030 Vision, Qatar is essentially in need of a new national identity, as Al-Malki points out, but creating such a new national identity out of old cloth is far from simple. The state is multi-ethnic but restrictive in terms of who can be a Qatari citizen. Unless the state becomes more inclusive towards all ethnicities, it is unlikely to develop a new national identity to help support progress towards the transformation it aims to achieve. Development and economic policies regarding sustainability are also issues, and Qatarization of the labor force remains a giant obstacle, as much of industry is reliant upon expats for leadership.
In conclusion, Qatar is a nation that has expressed its intention to transform itself into a self-sustaining, progressive force, but many obstacles remain. The country is essentially still a monarchy, and there is too little macro-policy in place to provide oversight of the transformation across numerous sectors that is meant to be happening in Qatar at the current moment. The Vision 2030 may have been a momentary inspiration that has proven to be backed by little more than empty promises. The reality of Qatar is that it is filled with a host of contradictions that prevent it from becoming, barring a total revolution, the type of state it has envisioned for itself in the state’s Qatar National Vision 2030.
References
Gremm, J., Barth, J., Fietkiewicz, K. J., & Stock, W. G. (2018). Qatar in a Nutshell. In Transitioning Towards a Knowledge Society (pp. 37-65). Springer, Cham.
Kassem, L. M., & Al-Muftah, E. (2016). The Qatari family at the intersection of policies. In Policy-Making in a Transformative State (pp. 213-239). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Lambert, J. (2011). Political reform in Qatar: Participation, legitimacy and security.  Middle East Policy, 18(1), 89.
Qatar-America Institute. (2019). Women’s Rights and Leadership Roles in Qatar. Retrieved from https://qataramerica.org/projects/womensrights/
Tok, M. E., Alkhater, L. R., & Pal, L. A. (2016). Policy-making in a transformative state: the case of Qatar. In Policy-Making in a Transformative State (pp. 1-35). Palgrave Macmillan, London.