Doings in Bahrain

King Hamad of Bahrain has been flexing his reformist credentials lately. Here he ordered his government to drop a legal case against a play criticizing the royal family, while here it says you can now hold on-line debates with members of the Shura, the appointed upper house of Bahrain's Parliament. Unfortunately, I'm not really convinced this amounts to anything. The first part merely serves as a safety valve to contain Shi'ite dissent, while the second seems to me an attempt to co-opt democratic reforms rather than implement them. The King is giving the people a direct line to his appointees, whom he can then claim are responsive to their interests. Meanwhile, he gets to keep all the power because these consultations will eliminate some of the pressure for greater democracy. It's basically a computerized version of the traditional Arab audience state as described here with reference to Saudi Arabia.