section_path: Government and politics/Monarchy and royal family
section_name: Monarchy and royal family
paragraph_text: Monarchy and royal family
  
  The king combines legislative, executive, and judicial functions and royal decrees form the basis of the country's legislation. The prime minister presides over the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia and Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia. The king has usually been also the prime minister, with two exceptions: Crown Prince Faisal, who was prime minister during the reign of King Saud, and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the current prime minister since 2022. The royal family dominates the political system. The family's vast numbers allows it to control most of the kingdom's important posts and to have an involvement and presence at all levels of government. The number of princes is estimated to be at least 7 000, with most power and influence being wielded by the 200 or so male descendants of Ibn Saud. The key ministries are generally reserved for the royal family, as are the 13 regional governorships.
  
  The Saudi government and the royal family have often been accused of corruption over many years, and this continues into the 21st century. In a country that is said to "belong" to the royal family and is named for them, the lines between state assets and the personal wealth of senior princes are blurred. The extent of corruption has been described as systemic and endemic, and its existence was acknowledged and defended by Prince Bandar bin Sultan (a senior member of the royal family) in an interview in 2001.
  
  In its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2010, Transparency International gave Saudi Arabia a score of 4.7 (on a scale from 0 to 10 where 0 is "highly corrupt" and 10 is "highly clean"). Saudi Arabia has undergone a process of political and social reform, such as to increase public transparency and good governance, but nepotism and patronage are widespread when doing business in the country; the enforcement of the anti-corruption laws is selective and public officials engage in corruption with impunity. As many as 500 people, including prominent Saudi Arabian princes, government ministers, and businesspeople, were arrested in an anti-corruption campaign in November 2017.