ABSTRACT
At the core of “disembedded regionalism” in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an incapacity to foster more representative forms of politics that are responsive to citizens. Instead, elite-to-elite relations are a salient feature that characterises Gulf politics. A radical re-reading of Jürgen Habermas and John Rawls, applied to the GCC in the first two decades of the 21st century, confirms that top-down management of politics is conducive to conflict and disintegration as against integration, marginalising the agenda of multi-level governance within the subregion. Set against the backdrop of the current blockade/crisis, this critical rendition throws into sharp relief the non-democratic brand of GCC regionalism.
Acknowledgments
This publication was made possible by Program grant # [NPRP9 309–5–041] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation), with LPI Larbi Sadiki. The findings herein reflect the work, and are solely the responsibility, of the author.
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Larbi Sadiki
Larbi Sadiki is Professor of Arab Democratization in the Department of International Affairs, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.