Toward a Theory of Liberalized Autocracy: The Seesaw Model and Islamic Monarchies in the Middle East.

My paper presents a hybrid of autocracy and democracy developing in Middle Eastern monarchies (as in Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia). It develops a theoretical model, the Seesaw Model, which permits the study of the interaction of the ruler and the ruled in a hybrid of liberalized autocracy. In elaborating on my hybrid model I cover various measures used by these different monarchs to control participation, to curtail political parties (where they exist) and to limit the rise of nascent civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]