The government of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy in which the King holds final authority over the executive, judicial, and regulatory branches, and Islamic law drawn from the Quran and the Sunnah serves as the constitutional foundation. King Salman bin Abdulaziz has reigned since 2015, and since September 2022 Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has served as Prime Minister, running day-to-day governance while the King retains ultimate authority through royal decree.
The Basic Law and Where Power Sits
The closest thing the kingdom has to a written constitution is the Basic Law of Governance, issued by Royal Decree No. A/90 on March 1, 1992.1Shura Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Basic Law of Government Its first article declares Saudi Arabia a “sovereign Arab Islamic State” whose religion is Islam, and Article 7 states that the government “derives its power from the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s Sunnah which rule over this and all other State Laws.”2Constitute. Saudi Arabia 1992 (rev. 2013) Constitution No secular legislative body creates law independent of religious principles.
Article 44 identifies three branches of state power: judicial, executive, and regulatory. The same article then adds the qualifier that shapes everything else: “The King is the ultimate source of all these authorities.”2Constitute. Saudi Arabia 1992 (rev. 2013) Constitution The King is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, can declare war and states of emergency, and issues the royal decrees that give laws, treaties, and international agreements their binding force. He also supervises the enforcement of Islamic law and protects the holy sites in Mecca and Medina. No institution can override a decision carried by royal authority.
The King, the Crown Prince, and Succession
The throne is restricted to descendants of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz ibn Abdurrahman Al Saud. Article 5 of the Basic Law provides that “the most eligible” among the founder’s sons and grandsons shall be invited to rule, and that the King names the Crown Prince by royal order.2Constitute. Saudi Arabia 1992 (rev. 2013) Constitution
Succession was formalized in 2006 through the Pledge of Allegiance Commission Law, issued under Royal Order A/135. The commission includes the surviving sons of King Abdulaziz, a representative appointed by the King for each deceased or incapacitated son’s line, and two additional members the King selects from his own sons and those of the Crown Prince.3University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Succession Commission Law – Saudi Arabia When a King dies, the commission calls for allegiance to the Crown Prince as the new King. The new King then has 30 days to propose up to three candidates for Crown Prince. If the commission rejects all of them, it can put forward its own nominee; if the King still objects, the matter goes to a vote between his choice and the commission’s, with the majority winning.
In practice, the King’s influence over the process has remained decisive. King Salman’s 2017 decision to elevate his son Mohammed bin Salman to Crown Prince, bypassing his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, made that clear.
Crown Prince as Prime Minister
Article 56 of the Basic Law originally placed the role of Prime Minister with the King, and the Crown Prince acted as deputy. That arrangement changed in September 2022, when King Salman issued a royal decree appointing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as Prime Minister. The move made him the first person outside the King to hold the title in decades and concentrated executive decision-making in his hands while the aging King stepped back from daily governance.
The Council of Ministers
The Council of Ministers is the kingdom’s main executive body, reorganized under the Law of the Council of Ministers by Royal Order A/13 in August 1993.4University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Law of the Council of Ministries – Saudi Arabia The Prime Minister presides over its meetings, which in practice now means Mohammed bin Salman rather than the King. The council drafts and implements domestic, foreign, financial, economic, educational, and defense policy. It reviews Shura Council recommendations and serves as the final authority on financial and administrative matters across ministries and government agencies.
The council reviews and votes on the state budget chapter by chapter before it goes to the King for approval by royal decree, and the government cannot take on any loan without both the council’s approval and a corresponding royal decree.4University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Law of the Council of Ministries – Saudi Arabia Ministers are appointed by the King and answer directly to him for the performance of their departments. The council may also create investigative committees to audit ministries and agencies.
The Shura Council
The Shura Council is the formal advisory body on legislation and national policy. Established under Royal Decree A/91 in 1992, it consists of a speaker and 150 members appointed by the King for four-year terms.5Shura Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shura Council Law Members must be Saudi citizens by birth, at least 30 years old, and recognized for their competence. Women must make up at least 20 percent of the membership.
The council can propose new laws or amendments, review international treaties and concessions, analyze existing legislation, and examine the annual reports of government agencies.5Shura Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shura Council Law When it passes a recommendation, the speaker submits it to the King. If the Shura Council and the Council of Ministers disagree, the King resolves the dispute. This is not a parliament. The Shura Council cannot enact binding law on its own; it shapes policy through persuasion and expertise, not through a compelling vote.
The Courts and Islamic Law
Saudi courts apply Islamic law as the primary basis for their rulings. The current court structure was reorganized under the Law of the Judiciary, issued by Royal Decree M/78 in October 2007.6Saudi Press Agency. Translation of Judicial System and Court of Grievances System into English The hierarchy runs from the High Court down through Courts of Appeal to six categories of first-degree courts: general, criminal, personal status, commercial, labor, and enforcement. A separate Board of Grievances handles administrative disputes against government agencies.
The Supreme Judicial Council oversees the administrative side of the judiciary. It supervises judges, manages promotions and transfers, can create or merge courts, and designates court presidents, reporting to the King through an annual review. Judges apply Islamic legal principles to the facts of each case, though the government has increasingly codified specific rules to bring more consistency to rulings. One prominent example is the Personal Status Law of 2022, issued under Royal Decree M/73, which formally defined the conditions for marriage contracts, the types and procedures of divorce, and the rules governing child custody after decades in which those matters had turned on individual judicial interpretation.7Family Affairs Council. The Personal Status Law
The Role of Religious Authority
The relationship between government and religion is structural, not just cultural. Article 23 of the Basic Law charges the state with protecting Islamic belief, applying religious law, and calling people to Islam.2Constitute. Saudi Arabia 1992 (rev. 2013) Constitution Article 8 grounds the system of governance in justice, consultation, and equality “in compliance with the Islamic Shari’ah.” The Council of Senior Scholars advises the government where Islamic law meets policy. It has no veto over royal decrees, but its endorsement carries weight in a system whose legitimacy is explicitly tied to religious principles.
How the Country Is Administered Regionally
The kingdom is divided into 13 administrative provinces, each governed by an emir who is typically a member of the royal family. The Law of the Provinces, issued under Royal Decree A/92 in 1992, defines how these regional governments operate.8FAOLEX. Law of the Provinces Each emir is responsible for maintaining security, implementing court rulings, protecting human rights within the boundaries of Islamic and statutory law, and driving economic and social development. Emirs supervise all government employees and institutions within their province and submit annual reports to the Ministry of the Interior.
Each province also has a council that identifies regional needs, proposes their inclusion in the national development plan and annual budget, ranks projects by priority, and monitors implementation.8FAOLEX. Law of the Provinces Governors answer to the Ministry of the Interior and the King, not to any elected body. Political control stays firmly in Riyadh.
Vision 2030 and the New Economic Power Center
The most significant recent changes to how Saudi Arabia governs itself are happening through Vision 2030, the national transformation plan launched in 2016. Its targets include lowering unemployment to 7 percent, raising women’s workforce participation to 30 percent, growing the Public Investment Fund’s assets to over 7 trillion Saudi riyals, pushing non-oil government revenue from 163 billion riyals to 1 trillion, and lifting the private sector’s share of GDP from 40 to 65 percent.9Saudi Vision 2030. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Vision 2030
To drive those goals, King Salman created the Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA) by royal decree in 2015. Chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, CEDA has become one of the most powerful bodies in the government. It reviews all draft laws and regulations before they reach the Council of Ministers, can block or cancel regulations it considers harmful to the economy, and can compel government agencies to reconsider their decisions.10Saudipedia. Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA)
The Public Investment Fund
The Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, with assets exceeding $1.15 trillion. It operates with financial and administrative autonomy and maintains its own annual budget, separate from the state’s general finances.11Saudipedia. Public Investment Fund (PIF) Oversight of the fund transferred from the Ministry of Finance to CEDA in 2015, and since 2014 the PIF has had authority to establish new companies inside and outside the kingdom without needing Council of Ministers approval. The Crown Prince chairs its board, making the fund a direct instrument of his economic agenda and anchoring many of the megaprojects associated with Vision 2030.
Taxation and State Revenue
Tax collection and customs enforcement fall under the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), which administers the religious levy (zakat), corporate income taxes, value-added tax, and customs duties.12Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority. Home Page Saudi-owned businesses pay zakat at 2.5 percent of their zakat base, while foreign-owned companies pay a 20 percent corporate income tax on net adjusted profits. Oil and hydrocarbon producers face rates ranging from 50 to 85 percent. The kingdom introduced a 5 percent value-added tax in 2018 and tripled it to 15 percent in July 2020 as oil revenues fell during the pandemic. That shift reflects a larger change in how the state finances itself: for most of its history, government revenue came from oil rather than taxes on citizens.
Recent Reforms and Their Limits
Since 2017, the government has enacted a rapid series of social reforms. The ban on women driving was lifted in June 2018. Travel rules were loosened so that women over 21 no longer need a male guardian’s permission to obtain a passport or leave the country. Labor law was amended to explicitly define “worker” to include women, to prohibit dismissal during pregnancy or maternity leave, and to introduce protections against employment discrimination based on sex. Women can now register births, report deaths, and obtain family records from the civil status office directly.
These reforms have not come with political liberalization. The kingdom has no elected national legislature, no legal political parties, and significant restrictions on free expression and assembly. Several women’s rights activists who had campaigned for the reforms the government later adopted were arrested in 2018 and faced criminal charges. The pace and direction of reform remain at the discretion of the royal leadership. In an absolute monarchy, change can be sweeping and fast, but it flows from the top down and can be reversed the same way.