Committee Assignments as a Proxy to Understanding the Saudi Shura Council: 1994-2016

This paper aims to unpack the Saudi Shura Council's internal dynamics as a fully appointed semi-legislative assembly. It seeks to create a potential path towards understanding it's function using it's committee system. The paper combines literature on legislatures in authoritarian regimes with literature on committee assignments in democratic parliaments to understand the puzzle of the function of the Saudi Shura Council. It tests three theories for why committee seats are assigned in the council: loyalty, business connections and Experience/Technical Specialization. Through the utilization of monte carlo simulation and logit regression, the paper finds that Experience/Technical Specialization feature heavily in the assignment of committee seats in the council. This opens up a potential path towards arguing that the council though limited in it's legislative powers and is mostly advisory, still serves as a "technocratic kitchen" to aid the executive in amending legislation and government reports.