Making public policies in Saudi Arabia 2015-2019

Summary

The paper proceeds from a premise that “after Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed his position as Crown Prince in mid-2017, he, along with his close advisors, have become the most important actors in most stages of public policy-making, setting the agenda, designing policies, decision-making, implementing policies and evaluating them, despite the fact that King Salman remains on top of the political hierarchy, and his move to sometimes redress the decisions of his crown prince, especially in times of escalating internal and external crises.

The paper attempts to answer some key questions, such as: Did the public policy-making environment in Saudi Arabia during the era of King Salman differ from previous eras? Why? How far did “Vision 2030” add with respect to public policies? How different is  “Vision 2030” from the previous Saudi five-year plans?