Some reservations to express here:
Bahrain has oil, not as much as Saudi Arabia, but with a smaller population, Bahrain has enough oil being exported on a daily basis as not to have any financial problems.
Syria also has oil, again not as much as S. Arabia, and also exports some.
As for the Shi'ite protests in an eastern province of Saudi Arabia, the news I read states that some protesters fired live rounds of ammunition at Saudi Police, injuring a number of them.
S. Arabia has accused a foreign country of causing the disturbances in the eastern province, with reference to Iran.
All Saudi citizens, including Shi'ites, are entitled to economic privileges.
Saudi Arabia has a state system that is not exactly equivalent to democracy as intended in the West, but it was like that from the start of the Saudi state. In that region, there never has been a democracy as the West knows it.
There is no international law saying that a country has to have western-style democracy. International laws are more concerned with basic human rights within a country, and most countries in the world do have a constitution guaranteeing human rights for all citizens of the state.
Saudi Arabia is also an important trading partner with the West, and with their oil exports, have enough power to sting the whole world up the hind if anyone started picking on them. They'd just have to turn the tap off for a few weeks.
