Authoritarian State Formation: Institutions, Coercion, and Legitimation in the Hijaz after 1924

• In Event: Comparative-Historical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Comparative-Historical Roundtable 2

Abstract

This paper explores the roots of authoritarian state formation, arguing that the structural and legal foundations established in the early stages of state building decisively shape the state’s later trajectory. These foundational arrangements produce enduring institutional and social characteristics that constrain political pluralism and hinder democratic transition, even after decades of reform efforts. Based on extensive analysis of archival materials from 1916 to 1974, the study demonstrates that the principal obstacles to democracy are embedded in the formative moments of state creation rather than in subsequent governance alone. This paper investigates the roots of the silence through which Hijazi society came to appear acquiescent to domination by a new authority detached from its historical traditions. It examines the profound political, social, and religious transformation of Hijaz, including the erosion of its earlier role as a hub of intellectual and liberation movements in the wider region.
This project builds on Charles Tilly’s argument that modern states emerged primarily through organized violence rather than social contracts, emphasizing war-making, extraction, governance, and protection as core state practices. It also engages Pierre Bourdieu’s insight that the state must be analyzed through its everyday operations and symbolic effects, which penetrate individual lives. By synthesizing these approaches, the project examines how new institutional structures enable states to shape and regulate social behavior through symbolic violence and public order. This study employs a socio-historical analysis of Hijazi society between 1916 and 1974 to investigate the roots of Hijazi silence. Using a causal narrative approach, it traces social events and political orders through British and American political archives and local Hijazi and Saudi newspapers. These materials, rarely examined together, enable analysis of social structural change, state intervention, and mechanisms that reshaped collective behavior and facilitated long-term political silencing in modern Hijaz. The research contributes to academic debates on state formation by shifting attention to authoritarian trajectories and highlighting how coercive and symbolic mechanisms become normalized over time.

Author

• Hashem Alrefai, University of Pittsburgh