86 research outputs found
Natural resource rent and stakeholder politics in Africa: towards a new conceptualisation
YesThis paper critically revisits the debate on natural resource rent, curse and conflict, interrogating some of the key assumptions that have become received knowledge in extant discourses. The paper demonstrates how orthodox theoriesâ preoccupation with issues of resource rent and resource curse tend to be marred by slants of ahistoricity and state-centricity. Adopting a stakeholder approach to the issues of resource rent and conflict in Africa, the author argues that natural resource rents produce and attract a multiplicity of competitive stakeholders, both domestic and external, in the resource-rich states. The competition and jostling of stakeholders for access to, and appropriation of, rentier resources is too often an antagonistic process in many emerging economies that has consequences and implications for violent conflict. The paper attempts a new conceptual explanation of how natural resource rents dialectically generate stakes, stakeholders and political conflict. The paper concludes by proposing the need for the more conflict-prone African rentier states to transition to a more functional state model, the transformative state
Natural resource rent and stakeholder politics in Africa: towards a new conceptualisation
YesThis paper critically revisits the debate on natural resource rent, curse and conflict, interrogating some of the key assumptions that have become received knowledge in extant discourses. The paper demonstrates how orthodox theoriesâ preoccupation with issues of resource rent and resource curse tend to be marred by slants of ahistoricity and state-centricity. Adopting a stakeholder approach to the issues of resource rent and conflict in Africa, the author argues that natural resource rents produce and attract a multiplicity of competitive stakeholders, both domestic and external, in the resource-rich states. The competition and jostling of stakeholders for access to, and appropriation of, rentier resources is too often an antagonistic process in many emerging economies that has consequences and implications for violent conflict. The paper attempts a new conceptual explanation of how natural resource rents dialectically generate stakes, stakeholders and political conflict. The paper concludes by proposing the need for the more conflict-prone African rentier states to transition to a more functional state model, the transformative state
New Petroâaggression in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia in the Spotlight
That hydrocarbon abundance may lead to more violence is an established truism in the literature on the resource curse. Looking at the Middle East, however, the literature relates bellicose state behaviour entirely to oil-producing revolutionary republics. Instead, dynastic monarchies are claimed to be the more peacefully behaving actors. Current developments turn this conclusion upside down, however. Since 2015 at the latest, the foreign policy of Saudi Arabia, the leading monarchy in the Middle East, has transformed from multi-dependence to petro-aggression. By discussing this striking transformation, the paper puts forward a framework looking at the interaction of three crucial dimensions: first, the decreasing power projection towards the Middle East by the United States, the decade-long hegemon, due to gradual changes in world energy markets and war fatigue at home; second, the lasting fiscal potency of the Saudi regime; and, third, the personalization of the Saudi monarchy under King Salman as a historically contingent result of transferring power to the generation of Ibn Saud's grandsons
Constraints to Economic Development and Growth in the Middle East and North Africa
When comparing the speed and extent of economic development in different geographic
regions of the world over the past 20 years, the under-average performance of Arab countries
in general and Arab Mediterranean countries in particular is striking. This is despite
an overall favorable geo-strategic situation at the crossroads of three continents, with excellent
connections to sea and waterways and in direct proximity to the European Union,
one of the worldâs economic hubs. It is also despite the minor importance of negative factors
such as a high-burden diseases or high levels of ethnic fractionalization.
In this paper, I focus on identifying the most important constraints on Arab Mediterranean
economic development. I use state-of-the-art econometric tools to quantify constraints that
have been identified through economic theory and studies of the political economy characteristics
of the region. The empirical results offer support for the central hypothesis that
limited technological capacities and political economy structures are the primary constraints
on economic development. With a view to international structural adjustment efforts,
my findings imply that the limited success of the Euro-Mediterranean policy to
stimulate the economic development of the Arab Mediterranean countries might be because
structural adjustment efforts do not tackleâor at least do not sufficiently tackleâ
these constraints.Vergleicht man Geschwindigkeit und Umfang der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der verschiedenen
Weltregionen in den vergangenen zwanzig Jahren, so fÀllt insbesondere das
unterdurchschnittliche Abschneiden der arabischen LĂ€nder im Allgemeinen und der arabischen
MittlemeerlÀnder im Besonderen ins Auge, und dies trotz einer insgesamt vorteilhaften
geographischen Lage im Schnittpunkt dreier Kontinente mit exzellenten Anschlussmöglichkeiten
an See- und Wasserwege, trotz der direkten Nachbarschaft zum
Weltwirtschaftsdrehkreuz EuropÀische Union und trotz der relativ geringen Bedeutung
wichtiger entwicklungshemmender Faktoren, beispielsweise ethnische Zersplitterung oder
massive Ausbreitung von Krankheiten wie AIDS oder Malaria.
In diesem Aufsatz wird versucht, von den unterschiedlichen Hemmfaktoren wirtschaftlicher
Entwicklung, die in der wirtschaftstheoretischen Literatur und/oder in MENARegionalstudien
diskutiert werden, diejenigen herauszuarbeiten, die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung
am stÀrksten behindern oder möglicherweise stÀrker als andere. Dabei benutze
ich modernste ökonometrische Verfahren, um den Einfluss der verschiedenen erklÀrenden
Variablen zu quantifizieren. Die Ergebnisse stĂŒtzen die Eingangshypothese, dass insbesondere
mangelnde technologische KapazitÀten und FÀhigkeiten sowie regionalspezifische
politökonomische Strukturen die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in den arabischen MittelmeerlÀndern
behindern
- âŠ