Andrew Leber
Biographic Data
| ID | 297864 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Andrew Leber |
| GIVEN NAMES | Andrew |
| FAMILY NAME | Leber |
| SIGNATURE | LEBER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Harvard University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6276-2623 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 39 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Evaluating Authoritarian Performance: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Attitudes in Saudi Arabia
Many authoritarian regimes seek mass support through policy performance – delivering material benefits to citizens. When do citizens respond to these appeals? Standard explanations emphasize national‐level outcomes and individual patronage, along with regimes' messaging “spin.” By contrast, we argue that historical legacies of coalition building have an enduring impact on citizens' attitudes regardless of more recent, objective performance. We te…
Saudization in a “Saudi First” kingdom
How have efforts to “nationalize” workforces in the Arab Gulf monarchies affected citizen and expatriate employment in these economies? In Saudi Arabia, policies such as the Nitaqat quota system clearly generate jobs for citizens, yet exhibit diminishing returns in the longer term even as they impose considerable costs on expatriate workers—limiting job opportunities and take-home pay. This paper draws on Saudi labor-market statistics to assess c…
Personalization and domestic policy outcomes: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
Whose War is it Anyway? Explaining the Black-White Gap in Support for the Use of Force Abroad
Building on long-standing work on a “gender gap” in war support, this article documents a recurring “race gap” in which Black Americans display less enthusiasm for war than their White counterparts. We compile time-series data on public opinion during the Iraq War collected from over fifty national polls and successive waves of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to assess potential explanations for the gap. We show that concerns about c…
When Can Dictators Go It Alone? Personalization and Oversight in Authoritarian Regimes
Why are some autocrats able to personalize power within their regimes while others are not? Past studies have focused on the balance of power between the autocrat and his or her supporting coalition of peer or subordinate elites, but we find that often the crucial relationship is between the autocrat and the 'old guard'-retired leaders, party elders, and other elites of the outgoing generation. Using an original data set of authoritarian leadersh…
Defining the “Tribal Advantage” in Kuwaiti Politics
Contemporary electoral discourses in Kuwait stress a “tribal advantage” that boosts the representation of tribe-affiliated Kuwaitis in the National Assembly and undermines the character of Kuwaiti democracy. We draw on survey data, elite interviews, and election returns to assess the validity of these claims. Kuwaiti responses in a survey of political attitudes cast doubt on the hypothesis that members of tribes are likelier to view voting as a q…
Seek Fact From Texts: Saudi Media on China Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
Have Saudi relations with China changed amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Commentary focussed on the international relations of the Persian Gulf has speculated that China's successful containment of the virus at home, combined with new diplomatic overtures, might lead to closer relations between China and the region. This article offers a framework for scholars to partially address this and other foreign-policy questions regarding the Kingdom, through …
Making Moves: Reading Saudi Social Change through Commercial Tabletop Games
While the promotion of “entertainment” has been a touchstone of policy changes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of late, most media and academic focus has been on large‐scale spectacles that reflect top‐down efforts of the Saudi state to effect economic and social change. In this article, I look to smaller‐scale cultural production – the nascent Saudi tabletop games industry – to understand how Saudi entrepreneurs evoke, adapt, or subtly contest st…
Framing a murder: Twitter influencers and the Jamal Khashoggi incident
Social media have played a significant role in political discourse across the Mediterranean in recent years. In this research note, we showcase the usefulness of social media data for political analysis by focusing on the main Arabic Twitter hashtag following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, October 2018. We collect a sample of almost 2.4 million tweets posted by nearly 370,000 Twitter accounts. We show that just 281 accounts dro…
A Storm of Tweets: Social Media Manipulation During the Gulf Crisis
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were heralded circa 2009–2011 as ‘liberation technology’ that would facilitate mass mobilization against Middle Eastern authoritarians. In this article, however, we present evidence from the ongoing Gulf Crisis (2017-present) that regimes can now exploit Twitter as an outlet for political propaganda. Drawing in part on novel data collected by the authors, we present strong evidence of state actors …
When the oil runs out: Changing rentier politics in the greater Mediterranean region
What happens when the oil runs out – or, at least, when oil rents run out? While numerous volumes and articles have discussed the political advantages of rising oil revenues for rentier states, one
Saudi Arabia plans for its economic future: Vision 2030, the National Transformation Plan and Saudi fiscal reform
In response to a rapid decline in world oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman introduced a new economic blueprint called Saudi Vision 2030 and the accompanying National Transformation Plan that would enable the Kingdom to diversify its heavily oil-dependent revenue base, reduce its growing budget deficits, balance its budgets, and promote long-term economic growth. This article analyses the goals of the Vision and the polici…
When Can Dictators Go It Alone? Personalization and Oversight in Authoritarian Regimes
Why are some autocrats able to personalize power within their regimes while others are not? Past studies have focused on the balance of power between the autocrat and his or her supporting coalition of peer or subordinate elites, but we find that often the crucial relationship is between the autocrat and the 'old guard'-retired leaders, party elders, and other elites of the outgoing generation. Using an original data set of authoritarian leadersh…
Saudi Arabia plans for its economic future: Vision 2030, the National Transformation Plan and Saudi fiscal reform
In response to a rapid decline in world oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman introduced a new economic blueprint called Saudi Vision 2030 and the accompanying National Transformation Plan that would enable the Kingdom to diversify its heavily oil-dependent revenue base, reduce its growing budget deficits, balance its budgets, and promote long-term economic growth. This article analyses the goals of the Vision and the polici…
Whose War is it Anyway? Explaining the Black-White Gap in Support for the Use of Force Abroad
Building on long-standing work on a “gender gap” in war support, this article documents a recurring “race gap” in which Black Americans display less enthusiasm for war than their White counterparts. We compile time-series data on public opinion during the Iraq War collected from over fifty national polls and successive waves of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to assess potential explanations for the gap. We show that concerns about c…
Framing a murder: Twitter influencers and the Jamal Khashoggi incident
Social media have played a significant role in political discourse across the Mediterranean in recent years. In this research note, we showcase the usefulness of social media data for political analysis by focusing on the main Arabic Twitter hashtag following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, October 2018. We collect a sample of almost 2.4 million tweets posted by nearly 370,000 Twitter accounts. We show that just 281 accounts dro…
Personalization and domestic policy outcomes: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
Defining the “Tribal Advantage” in Kuwaiti Politics
Contemporary electoral discourses in Kuwait stress a “tribal advantage” that boosts the representation of tribe-affiliated Kuwaitis in the National Assembly and undermines the character of Kuwaiti democracy. We draw on survey data, elite interviews, and election returns to assess the validity of these claims. Kuwaiti responses in a survey of political attitudes cast doubt on the hypothesis that members of tribes are likelier to view voting as a q…
When the oil runs out: Changing rentier politics in the greater Mediterranean region
What happens when the oil runs out – or, at least, when oil rents run out? While numerous volumes and articles have discussed the political advantages of rising oil revenues for rentier states, one
Saudi Arabia plans for its economic future: Vision 2030, the National Transformation Plan and Saudi fiscal reform
In response to a rapid decline in world oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman introduced a new economic blueprint called Saudi Vision 2030 and the accompanying National Transformation Plan that would enable the Kingdom to diversify its heavily oil-dependent revenue base, reduce its growing budget deficits, balance its budgets, and promote long-term economic growth. This article analyses the goals of the Vision and the polici…
A Storm of Tweets: Social Media Manipulation During the Gulf Crisis
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter were heralded circa 2009–2011 as ‘liberation technology’ that would facilitate mass mobilization against Middle Eastern authoritarians. In this article, however, we present evidence from the ongoing Gulf Crisis (2017-present) that regimes can now exploit Twitter as an outlet for political propaganda. Drawing in part on novel data collected by the authors, we present strong evidence of state actors …
Seek Fact From Texts: Saudi Media on China Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
Have Saudi relations with China changed amid the COVID-19 pandemic? Commentary focussed on the international relations of the Persian Gulf has speculated that China's successful containment of the virus at home, combined with new diplomatic overtures, might lead to closer relations between China and the region. This article offers a framework for scholars to partially address this and other foreign-policy questions regarding the Kingdom, through …
Making Moves: Reading Saudi Social Change through Commercial Tabletop Games
While the promotion of “entertainment” has been a touchstone of policy changes in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of late, most media and academic focus has been on large‐scale spectacles that reflect top‐down efforts of the Saudi state to effect economic and social change. In this article, I look to smaller‐scale cultural production – the nascent Saudi tabletop games industry – to understand how Saudi entrepreneurs evoke, adapt, or subtly contest st…
Framing a murder: Twitter influencers and the Jamal Khashoggi incident
Social media have played a significant role in political discourse across the Mediterranean in recent years. In this research note, we showcase the usefulness of social media data for political analysis by focusing on the main Arabic Twitter hashtag following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, October 2018. We collect a sample of almost 2.4 million tweets posted by nearly 370,000 Twitter accounts. We show that just 281 accounts dro…
Defining the “Tribal Advantage” in Kuwaiti Politics
Contemporary electoral discourses in Kuwait stress a “tribal advantage” that boosts the representation of tribe-affiliated Kuwaitis in the National Assembly and undermines the character of Kuwaiti democracy. We draw on survey data, elite interviews, and election returns to assess the validity of these claims. Kuwaiti responses in a survey of political attitudes cast doubt on the hypothesis that members of tribes are likelier to view voting as a q…
Whose War is it Anyway? Explaining the Black-White Gap in Support for the Use of Force Abroad
Building on long-standing work on a “gender gap” in war support, this article documents a recurring “race gap” in which Black Americans display less enthusiasm for war than their White counterparts. We compile time-series data on public opinion during the Iraq War collected from over fifty national polls and successive waves of the Cooperative Congressional Election Study to assess potential explanations for the gap. We show that concerns about c…
When Can Dictators Go It Alone? Personalization and Oversight in Authoritarian Regimes
Why are some autocrats able to personalize power within their regimes while others are not? Past studies have focused on the balance of power between the autocrat and his or her supporting coalition of peer or subordinate elites, but we find that often the crucial relationship is between the autocrat and the 'old guard'-retired leaders, party elders, and other elites of the outgoing generation. Using an original data set of authoritarian leadersh…
Personalization and domestic policy outcomes: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
Saudization in a “Saudi First” kingdom
How have efforts to “nationalize” workforces in the Arab Gulf monarchies affected citizen and expatriate employment in these economies? In Saudi Arabia, policies such as the Nitaqat quota system clearly generate jobs for citizens, yet exhibit diminishing returns in the longer term even as they impose considerable costs on expatriate workers—limiting job opportunities and take-home pay. This paper draws on Saudi labor-market statistics to assess c…
Evaluating Authoritarian Performance: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Attitudes in Saudi Arabia
Many authoritarian regimes seek mass support through policy performance – delivering material benefits to citizens. When do citizens respond to these appeals? Standard explanations emphasize national‐level outcomes and individual patronage, along with regimes' messaging “spin.” By contrast, we argue that historical legacies of coalition building have an enduring impact on citizens' attitudes regardless of more recent, objective performance. We te…
Political science (11 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Socioeconomic Development in MENA (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Law (5 works) · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Authoritarianism (3 works) · Democracy (3 works)