Yemen and its Development after Removal of President Ali Saleh - Essay Example

Yemen Introduction Yemen is an example of an underdeveloped that has crumbling governance and political structure,acute or inadequate social amenities, broken and disorganized military and dissent that has perpetually threatened to crumble the nation. It meets the criteria set by the Diamond Framework of how a society can choose to fail or succeed because of dysfunctional political and cultural practices. In the past, Yemen had been separated into the north and the south but the two factions united again in 1990 to form one reunified nation known as Yemen. The nation relies majorly on oil reserves and foreign aid to sustain itself as it is majorly a desert and there is little arable land for agriculture (Dresh, 2000). The political system of governance in Yemen is known as neo-patrimonialism whereby power flows directly from a leader who exercises absolute authority over the subjects as well as other legal-rational bureaucratic domination (Bratton and Van, 1994). The legal-rational bureaucratic domination implies that there is application of formal and rational public norms but their practice is both informal and personal. The political strategy of Yemens’ ruling class was therefore to create or ignore crises with the sole aim to manipulate any form of opposition in order to have a tight grip on the population as well as their loyalty. The crisis is also important as it not only helps in the manipulation of internal politics in Yemen, but also retains the attention of the international community who provide aid to meet the deficits in the nation’s budget. Recently in 2011, after the transition of the leadership in Yemen from the three-decade rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the nation still faces a decline in the social and political welfare of the citizens, which can be attributed to its dysfunctional political and cultural practices. Yemen as Dysfunctional Political and Cultural Society Yemen under President Saleh had a dysfunctional political system that functioned outside the normal government institutions or bureaucracies in that power was exercised by five families and powerful tribes. These families and tribes had access to power as well as resources enabling them to manipulate affairs within the nation for their own gain and convenience. They also thrived on creating crises to manipulate the citizens in their respective tribes while at the same time opposing any reforms in the political system, which would require accountability. The military and security agencies were at times used to crush down any form of opposition to the government or acts of rebellions. The past regime under President Ali Abdullah Saleh also created a political strategy and culture that focuses on patronage over the tribes to create dissent or obtain loyalty. Tribal militias and insurgencies that created opposing sides to the advantage of the leader characterized the country. The state was at times unwilling or unable to offer legitimate government authority while at the same time persistent crises exist in order to maintain the status quo (Clark, 2010). The crisis that are created in Yemen help the system in running making it fail to implement laws despite the capability of the regime to do so. At the same time, the system rewards those loyal and reinforce the states legitimacy gives an example of a dysfunctional failed state (Phillips and International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2011). However, the system of creating crises in order to derive legitimacy was only capable of maintaining the status quo rather than offering remedies for sustainable development. As already stated, Yemen is a neo-patrimonial society that makes it difficult to have sustainable economic growth due to frequent fiscal crises. One person who is the ultimate source of authority helped by other democratic political institutions exercised political power. In the case of Yemen, other institutions such as parliament, political parties and civil society organizations offer their loyalty to the political power in return for favours. Therefore, the regime in Yemen consisted of individuals, political parties and the military that help in decision making on matters affecting the state in whatever circumstances. Furthermore, in Yemen, there is a dysfunctional cultural practice whereby tribes form linkages and bonds for social and economic well-being. Therefore, the tribal bonds and linkages offer societal bonds of kinship and support to the group, which can be used for bargaining by the particular tribes. This means that the ability of any tribe in Yemen to engage in rebellion made them significant players in the country’s political system and calculations on policy matters. The most favoured tribes therefore have the advantage of exercising power and accessing resources for their own survival. The tribal structures also seem to be weaker as you move further away from the capital city as the central government exercises very limited influence in such areas. In order to maintain grip on power, the regime of President Saleh relied on the tribal militias for political support through the co-opting of the tribal leaders into the political leadership. The Saleh regime also manipulated the tribes to oppose and fight against each other rather than the state as a means of being stable in the volatile and unpredictable political environment in Yemen. This system of patronage provided stability to Saleh’s government but in the long run as the tribal leaders lost legitimacy, the government began crumble (International Crisis Group, 2011). This was the genesis of Yemen failure that made it one of the most failed States in the world for instance Somalia. It is important to note that Yemen offered to its citizens the freedom to criticize the political establishment as well as the freedom to associate with opposition groups. However, having a strong opposition to the government was thwarted through the military and security agencies that crashed any form of dissident Phillips and International Institute for Strategic Studies, 2011). For instance, in 2004 a Shia Zaydi rebellion was crushed through the security agencies that continue to battle tribal fighters in Sa’da, Hajja and al-Houthi governorates. It is also imperative that since the patronage system in Yemen majorly hinges on frameworks for the division of revenue from oil, it lacked any capacity to predict and prevent crisis when they occur. This drove the nation to crisis witnessed in the clamour for political reforms that led to the removal of President Saleh from political power. As the oil reserves in Yemen got depleted, the country began to experience cracks in its political system as it could no longer patronize the tribes and other backers of the regime. With the biting economic problems, they turned into political ones that could not be contained by the regime of President Saleh. Failure by president saleh to address all these problems therefore led to the collapse of Yemen as a functioning state with a viable political system (International Crisis Group, 2011). Therefore, Yemen as a state meets the criteria set by Diamond’s framework that classifies it as a state that has collapsed due to dysfunctional political and cultural practice. Comparison between Somalia and Yemen Yemen and Somalia serve as one of the most conflict-ravaged nations in the sense that they are continuously in conflict and crises that show signs of further deterioration. Most indicators show that in terms of governance, these two underdeveloped nations have poor governance structures, which rely mostly on patronage to hold onto power. In the case of Yemen, there are the five powerful families and tribes that hold onto power and access to wealth while Somalia’s case is mainly exercised through warlords who derive their power and legitimacy from their clans. The similarity here is that the political system relies on patronage and manipulation to foster their hold onto power and legitimacy, which can be attributed to dysfunctional political and cultural practices. Similarly, both states are characterized by intermittent crises and conflicts, while periods of political stability are plagued by tensions and violence as well as clashes. This leads to political deals meant to manipulate mostly the opposition and accommodate rival factions. From this, we can note that these states rely much on creating crises and thereafter making deals aimed at accommodating dissent as a means of retaining political legitimacy. The culture of the participants is important as conflicts created between people of different tribes and clans help the political leadership to hold onto power in Yemen and Somalia respectively. Therefore, conflicts are seen as the main sources of the collapse of the states of Yemen and Somalia, which are exacerbated by the activities of terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda (CNN Wire Staff, 2010). With both regimes keen to hold onto power through control of their respective tribes and clans, both countries got into political instability leading to the fall of the reign of Siad Barre in Somalia and that of President Saleh in Yemen. However, the main differences between the collapse of Yemen and Somalia is that, while in Yemen a few tribes and families have political power, in Somalia the political power is exercised by war lords in different regions of Somalia. Conclusion Yemen remains a collapsed and underdeveloped state as a result of a dysfunctional political and cultural structure that relies on patronage and manipulation to exercise political authority. Its crises are therefore created for political expediency by the ruling regime as a means of deriving legitimacy from the population or the subjects who must conform or be exterminated. Therefore, it has failed to meet the global tenets of democracy and often survives on crushing dissidents and stifling reforms, as a means of survival to the political ruling class. Despite all these inadequacies, Yemen is on the path to political reforms after an uprising led to the removal of the dictatorial regime of President Ali Saleh. References Bratton, M., & Van, . W. N. (January 01, 1994). Neopatrimonial regimes and political transitions in Africa. World Politics, 46, 4, 453-489. Clark, V. (2010). Yemen: Dancing on the heads of snakes. New Haven: Yale University Press. CNN Wire Staff. (1 November, 2010). “Yemen could become a new Somalia without help, minister says”. CNN World. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/11/01/yemen.aid/ Dresh, P. (2000). A History of Modern Yemen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. International Crisis Group. (2011). Popular protest in North Africa and the Middle East (II): Yemen between reform and revolution. Sanaa, Yemen: International Crisis Group. Phillips, S., & International Institute for Strategic Studies. (2011). Yemen and the politics of permanent crisis. Abingdon: Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Read More