Because power in a patrimonial system depends on access to the leader, he becomes the most important element in the system and tends to govern through an extended network of personal ties that are based on informal links rather than formal contracts or constitutions. Networks are a part of politics everywhere, but they are almost institutionalized in Islamic societies. The royal families of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates are obvious examples, as were the many family and personal links that linked Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq. Family and kinship ties have occasionally turned into extensive bureaucracies and elites based on the military, business, academia, and the mass media.