Legislating Through Policy Statements: The Authority of National Visions in the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

Abstract National Visions are policy instruments characterized by an outlook that is constitutional in nature, while also appealing to a country’s external relations, as well as its citizens. They are unique to the law and policy of Gulf States and set out decade-long policy aims that are subsequently translated into legislation or/and foreign policy objectives. This article examines the sports-related dimension of the Qatari National Vision, which was the basis for the country’s bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It is demonstrated that the constitutional nature of the sports dimension of the Vision helped to shape social attitudes in Qatar, as well as facilitate a rapid legislative reform in the field of labor relations, such that would have been unthinkable in the absence of strong sports-oriented policy underpinning the entire nation. National Visions should therefore be viewed as accelerators of social change and drivers of rapid legislative reform, even if they themselves do not outward display normative qualities.