The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded by Abdul-Aziz bin Saud in 1932. The present king, King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, succeeded to the throne on August 1, 2005, upon the death of King Fahd. King Abdullah is now 87 years old. Thanks to Saudi Arabia being located above the world's largest oil reserves and delivering about 9.758 million barrels of crude oil per day (2009 estimate per WolframAlpha) to world markets, King Abdullah is one of the world's richest monarchs.
Saudi Arabia Has a Complicated Conservative Ruling Structure
Saudi Arabia is ruled as an absolute monarchy, which means that the king serves as the Head of State as well as the Head of Government. In practice however, Saudi Arabia has a more complicated form of government in that as the home of Islam's two most holiest sites and as the protector of the Islamic religion power is shared with Ulema (religious scholars). This means that major policy decisions are not made solely by the king. This helps to explain why the Saudi Arabian government is so conservative and resistant to accepting change within the kingdom.
The rigidity of the monarchy is on a collision course with the demographics of Saudi Arabia and the region. According to The Economist in an article titled "The royal house is rattled too", Mar 3rd 2011,Cairo, "70% of Saudis are under the age of 30, and their median age is 19, the Saudi cabinet ministers average 65. Some senior princes have held their jobs as ministers or provincial governors for decades; one has governed the Northern Borders Province since 1956. Whereas 40% of Saudi youth have no jobs and nearly half of those in work take home less than 3,000 riyals ($830) a month, every prince (of whom there are probably 7,000-8,000) gets a monthly stipend ranging from a few thousand dollars up to $250,000, according to an estimate in a WikiLeaks cable."
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