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This is an aspect of the proposed narrative I don't understand.

How on Earth is turning the country into an absolute dictatorship, with the rule of law utterly disregarded, supposed to help Saudi Arabia move forward? The last things I would want to do financially would be to put money into a state where the local dictator has a proven willingness to seize assets on a whim.




In theory it would be that they believe they can kill two birds with one stone.

1) Take out competing power lines in the family. As a kicker they get to seize upwards of $300 billion that can go into the remake-Saudi-Arabia-fund for Mohammad Bin Salman (likely several times what they'd get initially from the Aramco IPO).

2) Neutralize concerns over that by covering it in a guise of cleaning up the kingdom. Most likely the kingdom has always operated by these means and they're simply throwing a switch and choosing to selectively prosecute.

Their plan bets on the second part being an acceptable cover story. They're betting some percentage of people will buy the premise outright. They're betting some percentage of people will find the cover story good enough to provide their own personal cover to continue working with the Saudis ('just give me some kind of rationale I can take to my people'). It would all rest on the notion that given enough time and stability afterward, that the vast majority of people that do business with Saudi Arabia now, will let this slide.


I think there is a deeper question here, and I don't think anyone has the answer:

Are there societies or cultures which are not yet at a stage where democracy is the best government form?

Because this is what it boils down to.


Dictatorships can be extremely good or extremely bad. Anti corruption moves, if true, are much easier to pull off with bureaucracy (and laws) out of the way. I'm hoping it will go back to the days of the French or Ottoman empires.




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