I begin the analysis of oil-financed institutionalized practices with a focus on government transfers and subsidies, highlighting the variation in access to resources in Gulf monarchies. I describe various types of transfers: 1) universal – those, such as free health care and subsidized household utilities, which all citizens enjoy; 2) particularist – those which are extended to specific communities – as in allowances to members of tribes or royal families and contracts to business elites; 3) idiosyncratic – as in funds to men to assist with their marriage expenses. I note changes to government distributions from mid-2014 and the oil price downturn. I then explore matters of equity and exclusion, highlighting those social categories who are privileged and those who are discriminated against in access to distributions in these states. I argue that the hierarchization of society and the related variation in access to resources are both integral to the shaping of the national community and a means for the state to exercise control insofar as key social categories are appeased via the relative marginalization of others.

Chapter 9 explains the provisions contained in the Agreement on Safeguards in order to provide special and differential treatment for the benefit of developing countries. It notes that Articles 9.1 and 9.2 are provisions that refer to different aspects of this treatment. Article 9.1 allows the exclusion of imports from developing countries if they are introduced below certain individual and collective thresholds. It is an obligation that arises at the time of application of a safeguard measure and there is no requirement to explain the exclusion of these countries. Article 9.2, on the other hand, is a provision that allows developing countries to impose safeguard measures beyond the maximum period provided in Article 7 of the agreement. While the prerogative is contemplated in the national legislation of some developing countries, there has never been a safeguard measure that has been notified to the WTO with a duration permitted in Article 9.2.

Statute law imposes on parents, and persons acting in the capacity of a parent, an obligation to compel their children between prescribed ages to attend a government or approved non-government school. This will generally mean that students are required to attend school between age six and the completion of Year 10 or turning 17 (whichever comes first). There is generally a requirement for youth to undertake full-time training, paid work or a combination of both through to the age of 17 – see, for example, Education Act 1990 (NSW) s 21B; Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic) s 2.1.1; Education (General Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld) ss 4(1)(b), 9. (There is also the option of home education, with a parent needing to be registered to provide this to his or her child, but this, of course, is not relevant to this chapter.)

The Introduction sets out the main themes, the scope and structure of the book, as well as some limitations and exclusions. It explains the aims and different chapters that compose the book. It lays out the main arguments and theses that underpin the book.