scholarly journals Comparative Political Economy of Resource Extraction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moises Arce ◽  
Adrian Siefkas
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
The Relationship

The bulk of the existing literature on the resource curse emphasizes the pervasive and negative outcomes that are typically associated with a country’s abundance of natural resources, such as poor governance, low levels of economic development, civil war, and dictatorship. The worldwide correlation between natural resource wealth and autocratic governance is well-known, and scholars have tried to explain this outcome in a variety of ways. One explanation is rentier state theory, which argues that resource wealth inhibits the growth of civil society because resource (oil) rents allow governments to relieve social pressures through a mix of low taxes and patronage spending. Oil rents thus undermine citizens’ motivation to mobilize, demand representation, or hold political leaders accountable. However, while much of the resource curse literature focuses on the adverse effects of oil wealth, oil makes up only one portion of extractive industries. A growing comparative political economy literature focuses on resource extraction (e.g., precious metals like gold and silver; base metals like copper; and energy resources like coal and uranium) and explains why it leads to conflict among local populations, corporations, and national governments. The extraction of these resources has the opposite effect of oil in that it tends to generate political activity as opposed to political apathy or quiescence. By political activity, we mean the different mobilizations and collective action strategies of challengers near the extractive frontier. While the literature treats this political activity as conflict, it is nonetheless distinct from the resource–civil war debate from the resource curse literature. Case studies and quantitative research support the observation that mineral wealth leads to conflict. The quantitative literature examines the variation of resource (mineral) conflicts cross-nationally and subnationally. Some studies have examined the relationship between mineral wealth and conflict; other studies have explored the relationship between geo-referenced extractive areas and conflict. Mineral extraction is different from oil extraction in terms of the labor intensity of extraction processes, the state ownership of the resource, and the amount of revenue each resource generates. Conflicts over mineral wealth can occur at different stages along the commodity chain: the point of resource access (e.g., when agricultural producers and extractive industries clash over land and water use), the extraction stage itself (e.g., when extractive industries are expanded), the processing and transportation of oil and minerals, and the waste management stage (e.g., the failure of tailing dams or oil pipelines). This comparative political economy literature has also begun to explore the consequences of conflicts, which can result in different political interactions between local communities and corporations, the extension of consultation rights as well as other participatory practices at the grassroots level.

Sovereign Wealth Funds and the Resource Curse

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jędrzej George Frynas
Keyword(s):  
Resource Curse ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Fiscal Rules ◽  
Sovereign Wealth Funds ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
Natural Resource Wealth ◽  
The Relationship

Historically, a key purpose of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) has been to help manage and minimize a range of negative economic and political consequences of natural resource wealth, often lumped together as the “resource curse.” This chapter asks to what extent SWFs—specifically “resource funds”—can mitigate the resource curse. It discusses the available empirical evidence for the effectiveness of resource funds as well as the relationship between societal governance and the effectiveness of resource funds. The available findings suggest that wider societal governance is of significantly greater importance for tackling the resource curse than the existence of a resource fund. Bad governance in a country prevents even the most transparent and robust resource funds from becoming an effective policy instrument. Conversely, resource funds can be successful in countries with effective societal institutions such as sound fiscal rules, good quality of government budget documentation, free civil society and independent media.

Unpacking the Local Resource Curse: How Externalities and Governance Shape Social Conflict

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 640-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renard Sexton
Keyword(s):  
Social Conflict ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
Local Resource ◽  
Natural Resource Extraction ◽  
Causal Pathway ◽  
Livestock Health

Natural resource extraction is economically important in many developing countries, but social conflict can threaten the viability of the sector. This article examines why polluting extractive industries sometimes generate social mobilization but often do not. First, I distinguish acute, highly visible environmental externalities from chronic, less observable pollution, showing that only the former generate social mobilization. Second, I explore how high-quality local governance can mitigate the local resource curse dynamic by both reducing pollution and improving compensation in mining-intensive areas. The analysis uses microlevel data on extractive commodities, water pollution, children’s and livestock health, local government quality, and mining-related social conflict in Peru to demonstrate the full causal pathway of the local resource curse.

scholarly journals New approaches to political economy

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Amable ◽  
Aidan Regan ◽  
Sabina Avdagic ◽  
Lucio Baccaro ◽  
Jonas Pontusson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Redistributive Policy ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Political Conflicts ◽  
Geographical Regions ◽  
Comparative Capitalism ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Organized Interest

Abstract The discussion on ‘New Approaches to Political Economy (PE)’ gives us a state-of-the-art overview of the main theoretical and conceptual developments within the concept of political economy. Thereby, it invites us to broaden our knowledge regarding manifold novel approaches, which make use of more complex methods to study the less stable, less predictable, but faster changing realities of smaller or bigger geographical regions. In this discussion forum, Amable takes a closer look on the nature of ‘conflict’ as well as the relationship between conflict and institutional change or stability. After stressing the relevance of comparative capitalism in general, Regan also zooms in on the political conflicts in comparative political economy from three different perspectives (electoral politics, organized interest groups and business-state elites), where he finds new avenues, tensions and research agendas are opening up. From a different perspective, Avdagic reviews the broad developments in the field of political economy with respect to the supply and demand side of redistributive policy. Thereafter, Baccaro and Pontusson sketch an alternative ‘growth model perspective’, which puts demand and distribution at the center of the analysis. Finally, Van der Zwan analyses the usefulness of financialization studies for the study of (comparative) political economy.

Energy Issues in the Context of the Regime Transition of Post-Soviet Eurasia: National and International Dimension

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-336
Author(s):  
Anastassia Obydenkova
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
International Dimension ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
Bureaucratic Power ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
Nondemocratic Regimes

In political science, democracy is generally associated with high levels of economic development. However, some scholars note that this is true only as long as economic development is not based on possession of rich energy resources. Many resource-rich states are nondemocratic regimes. This is sometimes called the “resource curse.” This means that “natural resource abundance may stimulate rent-seeking behavior that, together with highly concentrated bureaucratic power, induces corruption in the economy and hence lowers the quality of institutions.” It also means that “resource wealth itself may harm a country's prospects for development” and that “oil and mineral wealth tends to make states less democratic.”

Extractives for Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Addison ◽  
Alan Roe
Keyword(s):  
National Income ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Extractive Industries ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
Polar Opposite ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Narrative Thread

Countries face both challenges and opportunities in using their extractive industries to achieve more inclusive development—particularly in the developing world. Extractive industries have shaped economies, societies, and politics of nations—for good and bad. Today’s wealthiest nations owe a part of their high living standards to the extractive industries. Yet while a large national income can result from resource wealth, it can also be associated with acute social inequality and deep poverty—the polar opposite of inclusive development. Many developing countries struggle to diversify their economies, and create redistributive fiscal systems, in ways that reduce poverty, inequality, and social division. The very worst cases see violent conflict and civil war. The expression ‘resource curse’ has in turn become common coin. This chapter lays out the framework of the book for the reader, and describes the motive and contribution of the individual chapters to the narrative thread woven throughout.

scholarly journals Social inclusion and collective skill formation systems: policy and politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 095892872110356
Author(s):  
Niccolo Durazzi ◽  
Leonard Geyer
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Skill Formation ◽  
Policy Responses ◽  
Thematic Review ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Formation Systems

This thematic review essay focuses on the relationship between social inclusion and collective skill formation systems. It briefly surveys foundational literature in comparative political economy and comparative social policy that documented and explained the traditionally socially inclusive nature of these systems. It reviews how the literature conceptualized the current challenges faced by collective skill formation systems in upholding their inclusive nature in the context of the transition to post-industrial societies. It then discusses in detail a recent strand of literature that investigates the policy responses that have been deployed across countries to deal with these challenges. It concludes by providing heuristics that may be useful for researchers who seek to advance the study of the policy and politics of social inclusion in collective skill formation systems.

Institutions and Environmental Performance in Seventeen Western Democracies

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYLE A. SCRUGGS
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Political Democracy ◽  
Comparative Political Economy ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Institutional Variables ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Democracies

This article examines the relationship between national political and economic institutions and environmental performance since the early 1970s in seventeen OECD countries. After presenting hypotheses about some of the effects of the most important structural and institutional variables on performance, I test these hypotheses using a multiple regression analysis. I find that neo-corporatist societies experience much better environmental outcomes than more pluralist systems. However, neither the degree of ‘consensual’ political democracy nor traditional political factors can explain much variation in environmental performance. These relationships hold even after controlling for other structural factors such as income and manufacturing intensity. The results are robust despite perennial small-n statistical problems encountered in comparative political economy.

The Politics of the Resource Curse

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael L. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Resource Curse ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Mineral Wealth ◽  
Resource Wealth ◽  
Natural Resource Wealth ◽  
Harmful Effects

This article considers the debate over the “resource curse” (i.e., whether too much natural-resource wealth is harmful for developing countries) along with the debate about the mechanisms and conditions that likely generate the reported problems. After reviewing the literature on the resource curse, this article discusses the ways that scholars define “natural resources.” It then analyzes research on how resource wealth affects democracy, the quality of government institutions, and the incidence of violent conflict. It cites evidence showing that petroleum wealth, in particular, seems to have at least three harmful effects: to make authoritarian regimes more durable, to increase certain types of corruption, and to foster the onset of violent conflict in low- and middle-income countries, particularly when this form of mineral wealth is found in the territory of marginalized ethnic groups.

Revisiting the Resource Curse: Natural Disasters, the Price of Oil, and Democracy

2011 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristopher W. Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Instrumental Variables Approach ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractFluctuations in the price of oil and the contemporaneous political changes in oil-producing countries have raised an important question about the link between oil rents, political institutions, and civil liberties. This article presents a simple model of the relationship between resource income and political freedom and, using an instrumental variables approach, estimates the causal effect of shocks to oil revenues on levels of democracy. Using a new data set, multiple measures of democracy, and various specifications, I find that the effect of oil price shocks is larger than might be expected and on the order of the effects found from changes in gross domestic product.

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