How threatening to political stability is the fall in oil prices since mid-2014 and the persistent low price environment? In addressing this, I discuss the politics of distribution in statist systems in the MENA before considering the responses of oil-rich states to economic and political challenges. In comparing GCC states with Algeria, Iraq, and Libya, I conclude that the latter are far more vulnerable given that they suffer from relatively acute structural and institutional sources of instability ?related to distribution, broadly understood, while they lack the financial cushion of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.
Civil conflict, hydrocarbons, distribution, statism, economic reform, social control.