Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats

In Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats, the most thorough treatment of the political economy of Saudi Arabia to date, Steffen Hertog uncovers an untold history of how the elite rivalries and whims of half a century ago have shaped today's Saudi state.

Steffen Hertog is Kuwait Professor at Sciences Po Paris and Lecturer in the School of Government and International Affairs at the University of Durham.

It is an ability to see how politics shapes the structure and operations of the contemporary Saudi state that distinguishes Hertog's book. In a work characterized throughout by rigorous analysis, astute historical reflection and sharp observation, Hertog brilliantly illustrates the complexities and contradictions of an Arab rentier state.

Toby C. Jones:

Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats is an extraordinary book. Impressively researched, insightful, and lucidly written, Steffen Hertog has laid bare the complexity of the Saudi state, including its history, the ways the state functions, the impact of oil wealth on its institutions, and the behavior of its bureaucrats.... It is no exaggeration to write that Hertog's book is the finest book ever written on politics and the state in Saudi Arabia, an unparalleled achievement.... Hertog’s work reveals a number of wrinkles in the conventional wisdom on Saudi Arabia and the politics of oil states. Inefficiency and corruption exist in Saudi Arabia but so, too, do efficiency and professionalism. Where rentier theory predicts uniform patterns of government behavior, particularly in regard to corruption and paralyzing rent seeking, Hertog finds diverse patterns of behavior.... This book is the clearest and best documented work yet on the nuts and bolts of the Saudi government as well as its complicated bureaucracy and distribution of power.

Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania:

Toward the end of his career, the great Yale political scientist Charles Lindblom advised us to abandon the hopeless pursuit of scientific 'laws' and 'discoveries' and instead concentrate on what we can indeed do well: correcting the discipline's own errors and getting the facts straight. Steffen Hertog does both with consummate style and skill in Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats.

Roger Owen, Professor of Middle East History, Harvard University:

The book represents a wonderful piece of research and, I think, will soon become recognized as a classic with important ramifications for the study of oil monarchies in general.

F. Gregory Gause, III, University of Vermont:

Princes, Brokers and Bureaucrats is the best book yet on the formation of the modern, bureaucratic Saudi state. Steffen Hertog had a bird's-eye view, as a participant observer, of the processes he depicts. The book is destined to become a standard in explaining how politics in Saudi Arabia works.