Salman of Saudi Arabia

As a constitutionalist, I think the lack of the role of the people in running the government is a great error that Saudi Arabia has. In my opinion, a monarchy runs most effective when the power is divided between the monarch and the people, where the two have an equal responsibility for each other. More on reddit.com

Sentiment about Saudi Arabia aside, I thought it was very interesting how a man born in 1-8-fucking-7-5 not only has a living son, but a living son ruling the kingdom he (the father) created. As a matter of fact, all 6 kings after Abdul-Aziz have been his sons. That's quite something. More on reddit.com

Did some extended reading on ibn Saud and his family recently. This guy basically turned the region into an oil partnership with the US, Aramco. The King and his family lived in obscene opulence, American representatives of the Aramco lived in lavish free housing, and the Saudi people lived in squalor, subject to a combination of Islamic theocratic and American anti-communist propaganda. After WWII, as Western and Soviet interest in Middle Eastern oil prospects intensified, Saudi Arabia found itself playing both sides. While condemning the founding of the state of Israel alongside other Arab countries, they also maintained strong ties to America through oil. Other Middle Eastern countries began to explore Arab socialism and pan-Arabism, but Saudi Arabia maintained a staunch anti-socialist stance. Because of this conflicted political stance, socialism and communism never really took much hold in Saudi liberation movements. Because of the absolute monarchic state, there was no possibility for democratic shifts in policy either. Islamism and Islamic extremism became the refuge of the oppressed in Saudi Arabia, and their targets were both American and Saudi officials. With the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR aimed at suppressing an Islamic revolution, Islamicists in Saudi Arabia were moved to combat an ideological opponent and accepted billions of dollars in American aid to do so. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, this was interpreted as an Islamic victory, but the Saudi monarchy's decision to allow American military bases to be built along the gulf was seen as a betrayal to both Islam and the nation. One prominent Saudi Islamicist who had spent over a decade fighting the USSR was incensed by this and formed à militant jihadist cell. His citizenship was revoked by Saudi Arabia, and he spent the next ten years travelling between Sudan and Afghanistan, recruiting, training, and organizing impressionable youth who blamed their lot in life on America's hold on international politics. That group was al Qaeda, and that man was Osama bin Laden. More on reddit.com

Primogeniture is a european thing, we don't have it here. The first born doesn't have the right for the crown just because he was born first. It used to be that the King picks whoever he thinks will be more fitting for the job. But now it was changed so that a council vote on it instead (still new and probably need more time to be perfected) More on reddit.com