The Impact of the Legitimacy Crisis on the Internal and Regional Policies of Saudi Arabia (the Reign of King Salman)

The present article analyzes the various existing challenges in Saudi Arabia and their consequent legitimacy crisis during the reign of King Salman. The main question of the article relates to the impacts of the legitimacy crisis on the internal and regional policies of the Saudi state during the reign of King Salman. From the authors’ point of view, the hypothesis of the paper is that the existing traditional, political and modern challenges and the consequent legitimacy crisis have led to the domestic modernist reforms on the one hand and the mobilization of Salafi bias outside the country on the other. Based on the findings of the research, the measures taken during King Salman's reign, i.e. limited social reforms have had mostly an instrumental function and have not led to the creation of civil institutions, socio-political participation and real elections. The research method of this article is descriptive-analytical. Theoretically, the views of the contemporary social theorist Jürgen Habermas have been used to explain the question of legitimacy and legitimacy crisis.