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This chapter analyses the changes in and structures of governance of the United Arab Emirates (The UAE), tracing its history as a federation of seven individual emirates in 1971 up to its integration of all seven constituent emirates into one coherent and centralised state. In the process, the chapter analyses the increasing centralisation of political authority in the hands of the Abu Dhabi emirate, alongside the rise of the Dubai emirate as a commercial and financial hub. The role of the partially elected Federal National Council (FNC), which is often described as the country’s legislature, is also assessed, to determine the extent to which popular participation in politics is possible in Emirati domestic politics in 2026. To that end, the FNC’s elections, functioning, and composition are covered in detail. Two additional institutions of federal government, the Supreme Council of Rulers and the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, are assessed, as a means of determining their links to the FNC, the Emirati public, and the Emirati ruling families. In addition, local emirate-level institutions of governance are analysed, as a means of understanding local emirate differences, as each hosts its own appointed ruling council. The integration of local emirate interests into the broader federal government is additionally assessed, to determine the extent to which political centralisation has become a reality throughout the country. As Frauke Heard-Bey put it in 2005, “The integrity of every local emirate’s autonomy remains an all-important principle in the UAE’s political landscape. Throughout the more than three decades of its existence, the political life of the UAE was beholden to a ‘push-me-pull-you’ relationship of the local versus the central powers” (Heard-Bey, Middle East Journal 59:357–375, 2005). This chapter in many ways seeks to understand the extent to which such a relationship persists, 19 years later, through analysis of the state’s local and federal institutions and ruling families, as well as the interplay between them in articulation of a coherent Emirati national identity.

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From Fledgling Federation to Centralised State: Governance and the State in the United Arab Emirates

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Courtney Freer

摘要

This chapter analyses the changes in and structures of governance of the United Arab Emirates (The UAE), tracing its history as a federation of seven individual emirates in 1971 up to its integration of all seven constituent emirates into one coherent and centralised state. In the process, the chapter analyses the increasing centralisation of political authority in the hands of the Abu Dhabi emirate, alongside the rise of the Dubai emirate as a commercial and financial hub. The role of the partially elected Federal National Council (FNC), which is often described as the country’s legislature, is also assessed, to determine the extent to which popular participation in politics is possible in Emirati domestic politics in 2026. To that end, the FNC’s elections, functioning, and composition are covered in detail. Two additional institutions of federal government, the Supreme Council of Rulers and the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, are assessed, as a means of determining their links to the FNC, the Emirati public, and the Emirati ruling families. In addition, local emirate-level institutions of governance are analysed, as a means of understanding local emirate differences, as each hosts its own appointed ruling council. The integration of local emirate interests into the broader federal government is additionally assessed, to determine the extent to which political centralisation has become a reality throughout the country. As Frauke Heard-Bey put it in 2005, “The integrity of every local emirate’s autonomy remains an all-important principle in the UAE’s political landscape. Throughout the more than three decades of its existence, the political life of the UAE was beholden to a ‘push-me-pull-you’ relationship of the local versus the central powers” (Heard-Bey, Middle East Journal 59:357–375, 2005). This chapter in many ways seeks to understand the extent to which such a relationship persists, 19 years later, through analysis of the state’s local and federal institutions and ruling families, as well as the interplay between them in articulation of a coherent Emirati national identity.