Dissertation_Dr Faisal Almubarak

331
polarization of power under the King was soon to be reinforced with the flow of oilderived
funds dispensed from the capital; the funds were then allocated to the growing
settlements. Under the new nation-state, the society enjoyed a new sense of security and,
thanks to the government's encouragement, aspired to progress.
A promising life seemed more than ever attainable in the growing major towns and
induced migration to the cities. Small villages thrived. A few evolved into regionaladministrative
centers. As the nation-state guaranteed protection and security, urban forms
grew out of their walled enclaves and, with vigorous government modernization programs,
exploded into a sprawl, leaving behind atrophied cores. At the periphery, the ease and
simplicity of low-density land subdivision preempted any rigorous physical planning. In
short, the rise of the Saudi nation-state has resulted in the emergence of a new typology of
national government backed settlements composed of administrative cities, industrial cities,
and military towns, in addition to the ancient holy cities of Makkah, Madinah and
commercial cities like Jeddah.
Due to the prevailing political character and structure of the monarchic government
and its prerogative right to oil revenues, it is reasonable to view the contemporary urban
network under the monarchy as a system of unified settlements which fed on a central and
dominant capital, Riyadh. This channeling of oil revenues to local communities gradually
supplanted the settlements' traditional economies, hence reinforcing the economic
dependence of cities, towns and villages on the central state. Further, it contributed to the
political integrity of the fragile and nascent nation-state. Modernization, which has been
effectively employed by the government, can also be seen as a legitimizing instrument in
the volatile political environment of the Middle East generally and of Saudi Arabia, in
particular. Moreover, owing to the peculiar developmental stage of the traditional,
impoverished and illiterate society during the formation of the new nation-state, consequent
urban development took place in a heavily centralized state-regulated framework.
This profound metamorphosis cannot be merely attributed to impersonal changes in
technology brought about by the new imperatives of the oil industry. Similarly, the whole
substitution of traditional built forms with modern ones cannot be attributed merely to the
shifts in responsibility and in the use of private ownership and residents' control of their
neighborhoods; that is, symptoms must not be confused with causes. Nor can the legal
system, a sub-system of a culture, be solely relied upon to explain the complex processes