1. The Resource Curse, Democracy, and Development: Lessons from Strange Cases.
- Author
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Goldberg, Ellis, Wibbels, Erik, and Mvukiyehe, Eric
- Subjects
- *
NATURAL resources , *AUTHORITARIANISM , *POLITICAL science , *EMPIRICAL research , *ECONOMIC underdevelopment , *U.S. states - Abstract
Both the theory and empirical work linking natural resource wealth to authoritarianism and underdevelopment (commonly referred to as the rentier state hypothesis) suffer from a number of shortcomings. In this paper, we outline a number of those shortcomings and address them in a new empirical setting. Utilizing a new cross-sectional, time-series dataset for the U.S. states spanning 73 years and case studies of Texas and Louisiana, we are able to more carefully examine both the inherently diachronic nature and comparative legs of the rentier state hypothesis than previous research. We argue that natural resource wealth, rather than directly contributing to authoritarianism and economic underdevelopment, serves to preserve underlying political and economic dynamics present at the time natural resources begin to contribute to state finances. We draw implications from our findings for resource abundant countries across the world. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005