“Since December 2010, the wave of uprisings and protests across the Middle East has produced dramatic changes in the region's authoritarian republics, but has largely circumvented its autocratic monarchies. » (Yom and Gause, p. 1). The most interesting aspect of this transnational uprising movement is how it “largely circumvented autocratic monarchies.” In this article, I will focus on how the Arab Spring affected two of these autocratic monarchies: the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahraini public, motivated and frustrated by the way things were going, took to the streets in mass protest in February 2011 (Freedom House, Countries at a Crossroads, p. 1). Given that this could potentially weaken the existing government, as was the case in Egypt and Tunisia, Bahrain's autocratic government viewed the protests as a threat to its power and legitimacy and suppressed the protesters with brutal repression. and further political repression. However, these protests and the resulting violence did not take place in Qatar. So why did the Arab Spring affect the domestic stability of the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom of Bahrain, but not that of the oil-producing State of Qatar? Domestic stability is defined here as “the absence of large-scale violence in a country” (Nathan). Energy-rich countries that have recently transitioned from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy are more likely to suffer from domestic instability if two things happen. First, benefits from energy resources have declined and are unequally distributed among citizens, due to other sectarian-based economic discrimination policies. Second, in the case of the minority religious monarchy that holds the political majority...... middle of paper ......es Department of State. Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. 2013 National Reports on Human Rights Practices - Bahrain. Np, February 27, 2014. Web. March 19, 2014. .United States Department of State. Office of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. 2013 National Reports on Human Rights Practices - Qatar. Np, February 27, 2014. Web. March 19, 2014. Yom, Sean L. and F. Gregory Gause. “Resilient Royals: How Arab Monarchies are Hanging On.” » Journal of Democracy 23.4 (2012): 74-88. MUSE project. Internet. March 4, 2014. .Zunes, Stephen. “Bahrain’s Stopped Revolution.” Arab Studies Quarterly 35.2 (2013): 149-64. JSTOR. Internet. March 4. 2014. .