The ACRPS Gulf Studies and Arabian Peninsula Studies Unit, launched last autumn, hosted Yousef Al-Obaidan, Professor of Political Science at Qatar University and former member of Qatar’s Shura Council, to present the unit’s inaugural activity, as the first in a series of monthly lectures. The lecture, titled “Governance in Qatar: The Evolution of Political Participation since Independence,” was held on Tuesday 28 February 2023, at the ACRPS in Doha and moderated by researcher Abdulrahman Albaker.

Haider Saeed, head of the Unit and ACRPS researcher, introduced the lecture with a brief background to the Unit’s creation as an answer to the prevalence of stereotypes and assumptions about the Gulf in much of the scholarship on the region, which underestimates the pivotal role it plays. The global tendency to reduce this region to a mere source of energy has resulted in studies that neglect to investigate the social dynamics and development in the region through the lens of sociology, anthropology, history, or other social sciences and humanities disciplines. The Unit seeks to rectify this gap by stimulating objective knowledge production in this area in collaboration with other related institutions.

Al-Obaidan began his lecture by explaining that any discussion of governance in Qatar must be situated in the context of the formation of a nascent Qatari state under Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (1826-1913) and with the participation of the country’s notable elites, based on the teachings of Islam and the principle of the Shura. He noted that the political participation in Qatar had not taken the shape it had in other countries in the region such as Kuwait and Bahrain. Even when oil revenues began to soar in the 1940s, and education expanded, the Shura Council did not develop within an institutional framework, nor was it governed by written legislation.

Al-Obaidan noted that passing legislation in Qatar began with Law No. (1) of 1961, which established the official gazette, during the rule of Sheikh Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani (1920-1977). In 1964, the first Shura Council was established. It consisted of fifteen members and was chaired by the ruler and his deputy. All members were from the ruling family. This style of leadership continued until 1968, when Harold Wilson, then British Prime Minister, announced Westminster’s intention to withdraw from the region in 1971. This declaration was a message addressed to the Gulf states to prepare to face the power-vacuum that would result from the British withdrawal. In 1970, under the rule of Sheikh Ahmed, Qatar issued a basic law that was considered a written constitution, and formed the first ministry consisting of ten ministers, providing for the establishment of a Shura Council. Qatar's independence was declared on 3 September 1971.

In November 1972, when Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani took power, political institutions were developed, and the Shura revived. Khalifa is thus considered the true founder of the Shura in Qatar, forming his Council, and appointing its 20 members from the tribes and notables of Qatar in 1972. Sheikh Khalifa had a vision to start a gradual process of political participation, with the Council expressing its opinions in the form of recommendations. In 1976, the number of Shura members rose to 30 in order to represent the rest of the tribes and the council was empowered to take decisions on cultural and social issues. With Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani assuming the leadership 1995, his reform project first stipulated the establishment of a committee to work on establishing a permanent constitution. To that end he formed a committee in 1999, which presented a draft constitution in 2002, approved in 2004. However, the first elections for the Shura Council were delayed until the reign of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in order to develop political participation in Qatar gradually and securely over time.

During the lecture, Al-Obaidan alluded to his professional experience within Qatar’s political institutions and as a member of the Committee that drafted the Constitution, as well as his experience as a member of the Shura Council.