Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)
Autocratic TheocratOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Autocratic Theocrat hall →- Role
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§ Where Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) stands
3 axesSaudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund, which MBS chairs, anchor a state-dominated economy, yet his Vision 2030, launched in 2016, seeks privatisation and foreign capital: Aramco floated about 1.5 per cent of its shares in 2019, and a value-added tax introduced at 5 per cent in 2018 was tripled in 2020. The result is a mixed position, neither socialist nor free-market.
Saudi Arabia under MBS is an absolute monarchy with no elected legislature and no legal political parties. In 2017 a new Presidency of State Security was created under the king and hundreds of princes, officials and businessmen were detained at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton in an anti-corruption drive, and activists, clerics and online critics have received long prison sentences.
MBS has loosened many religious restrictions on daily life: the religious police lost their powers of arrest in 2016, women were allowed to drive in 2018 and, from 2019, to obtain passports and travel without a male guardian's consent, and cinemas and concerts returned. Islam remains the basis of law, however, and several women's rights activists who had campaigned for such reforms were detained in 2018.
How close are you to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalMohammed bin Salman Al Saud (b. 1985), widely known as MBS, is the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and, since 2022, its prime minister. A son of King Salman, he studied law at King Saud University and worked as an adviser to his father, then governor of Riyadh. When Salman became king in January 2015, he made his son defence minister at the age of 29; Mohammed was named deputy crown prince that April and crown prince in June 2017, displacing his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef.
MBS has concentrated power to a degree unusual even in the Saudi monarchy. His Vision 2030 plan seeks to wean the economy off oil, and he has lifted the ban on women driving, curbed the religious police and reopened cinemas. He has also overseen a crackdown on dissent, the 2017 detentions at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton and the war in Yemen launched in 2015. In 2018 Saudi agents killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul; a 2021 US intelligence assessment concluded that MBS approved an operation to capture or kill him, and he denies ordering the killing.
Key works & moments
- 2015Becomes defence minister as his father takes the throne; a Saudi-led intervention in Yemen begins.
- 2016Unveils Vision 2030, a plan to diversify the economy away from oil.
- 2017Named crown prince in June; hundreds are detained at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton in November.
- 2018Women gain the right to drive; Jamal Khashoggi is killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
- 2019Saudi Aramco lists about 1.5 per cent of its shares on the Riyadh stock exchange.
- 2022Appointed prime minister by royal decree in September.
§ Minds closest to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)
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Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Mohammed bin Salman's political ideology?
Mohammed bin Salman is an authoritarian modernising ruler: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, an Autocratic Theocrat. Economically he sits at a mixed position (0), pairing a state-owned oil giant and a vast sovereign wealth fund with privatisation and foreign investment under Vision 2030. On governance he is at the authoritarian extreme (+100), ruling an absolute monarchy whose legitimacy rests on Islam and the 1992 Basic Law. Socially he has relaxed restrictions on women and entertainment while keeping religious law and suppressing dissent.
Is Mohammed bin Salman left-wing or right-wing?
Neither label fits well: he is best described as an authoritarian modernising ruler. His economic policy mixes heavy state ownership, through Saudi Aramco and the Public Investment Fund, with privatisation, a value-added tax and the courting of foreign investors, so it sits between left and right. Politically he heads an absolute monarchy that bans parties and jails critics, while socially he has loosened religious restrictions on women and entertainment within an Islamic legal order. Authority, not a left-right programme, defines his politics.
What is Saudi Vision 2030?
Vision 2030 is Mohammed bin Salman's blueprint for reducing Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, unveiled in April 2016. It aims to expand the private sector, raise women's participation in the workforce, develop tourism, entertainment and mining, and turn the Public Investment Fund into a global investor, alongside giga-projects such as NEOM on the Red Sea coast. Supporters credit it with rapid social change and new industries, while critics question the cost and feasibility of the largest projects and note the political repression that has accompanied the reforms.
Which minds are closest to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS)?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) are Vladimir Putin (86% alike), Xi Jinping (86% alike) and Józef Piłsudski (84% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (8% alike).