Michael Herb

Michael Herb (born October 7, 1966) is an American political scientist who gained prominence through his All in the Family thesis of Arab monarchies.

Biographical details

Herb graduated from University of Washington in 1987, earned his master's degree from UCLA in 1992, and completed his doctorate at UCLA in 1997. He joined the faculty of the Georgia State Political Science Department in 1998.^[1]

All in the Family

In 1999, Herb published All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies. The book's central thesis is that the main reason for the resilience of Arab monarchies is not oil wealth or the lack of a middle class, but because numerous members of the royal family hold key positions in government.

Articles

• “No Representation without Taxation? Rents, Development, and Democracy.” 2005. Comparative Politics 37, no. 3 (April): 297-316.
• "Princes and Parliaments in the Arab World." 2004. Middle East Journal 58, no. 3 (Summer): 367-384.
• “Taxation and Representation.” 2003. Studies in Comparative International Development. 38, no. 3 (Fall): 3-31.
• "Subordinate Communities and the Utility of Ethnic Ties to a Neighboring Regime: Iran and the Shi'a of the Arab States of the Gulf." 1999. In Ethnic Conflict and International Politics of the Middle East. Ed. Leonard Binder. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 155-180.

References