Dubai goes global: toward a new model of development?

Abstract

The dissertation develops the Dubai development model and studies the impact of good governance practices on Dubai's growth. The model includes the goals, strategies, policies, management structure, and governing principles followed by Dubai. Various challenges and external forces influence and hinder the model. The dissertation borrows the World Bank's governance framework and studies how transparency, control of corruption, regulation, accountability, and the rule of law have had an effect on Dubai's development. It traces Dubai's history from 1833 until 2010, pinpoints its economic successes and challenges, looks at the effects of migrants' presence on the economy and society, studies the structure of the Dubai government, and places the city in a regional setting by comparing it to Abu Dhabi and Qatar.The dissertation develops the Dubai development model and studies the impact of good governance practices on Dubai's growth. The model includes the goals, strategies, policies, management structure, and governing principles followed by Dubai. Various challenges and external forces influence and hinder the model. The dissertation borrows the World Bank's governance framework and studies how transparency, control of corruption, regulation, accountability, and the rule of law have had an effect on Dubai's development. It traces Dubai's history from 1833 until 2010, pinpoints its economic successes and challenges, looks at the effects of migrants' presence on the economy and society, studies the structure of the Dubai government, and places the city in a regional setting by comparing it to Abu Dhabi and Qatar.The dissertation is original because it extracts a development model tailored to Dubai and the Arab Gulf region. It offers recommendations to places that are currently emulating Dubai's successes. The dissertation adds new empirical data to the existing literature and assesses the Arab Gulf region's developmental patterns in a critical way. It finds that Dubai's development model is solid because it builds on a history of economic liberalism. It can become sustainable if Dubai adopts various good governance practices.