The Energy Politics of Venezuela

2020 ◽  
pp. 643-662
Author(s):  
Antulio Rosales ◽  
Miriam Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Resource Curse ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Bolivarian Revolution ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Energy Politics ◽  
State And Society ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
Hugo Chavez ◽  
Oil Wealth

Venezuela is essential for global energy politics because it has the largest oil reserves in the world. Historically the nation has been a significant producer, but from 2013 onward it became immersed in a deep crisis. This chapter discusses the transformation of Venezuela attributed to oil extraction, the complexities of the political configurations molded by rent distribution, and the changes in sociocultural features due to the permeation of oil rents. Venezuela’s dependence on oil has often been explained through the “resource curse thesis” due to its incapacity to assure the benefits of the commodity-led growth model and to invest in activities that foster long-term development. Political science scholarship, specifically, has been most concerned with the use of oil wealth to shape state and society and with the relationship between the state and the oil industry in Venezuela, especially its national oil company, PDVSA. These arguments account for a paradoxical mismatch between Venezuela’s promise as producer and its indebted and inefficient oil industry during Bolivarian Revolution, led first by Hugo Chávez and later by Nicolás Maduro.

scholarly journals Antipoverty Programmes in Venezuela

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNE DAGUERRE
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Bolivarian Revolution ◽  
Social State ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hugo Chavez ◽  
Che Guevara

AbstractThis article analyses Venezuelan antipoverty programmes under the presidency of Hugo Chávez, the leader of the ‘Bolivarian Revolution’ (1998–present). Support for poor people has become the government's trademark since the creation in 2002–03 of a series of emergency social programmes, the Missions. These programmes attend to the basic needs of low-income individuals in terms of nutrition, health and education. The Missions are characterised by a pattern of institutional bypassing which makes their long-term institutionalisation difficult. Do the Missions really introduce a break with previous social policies? To answer this question, we first analyse the evolution of the Venezuelan social state. Second, we review the development of the Missions, especially the MissionVuelvan Caras, nowChe Guevara, an active labour market programme. Third, we provide an assessment of the Social Missions and identify ruptures and continuities with past social assistance policies. The main contention is that the Missions exhibit a strong pattern of path dependency, despite the ideological and discursive ruptures that have attended the presidency of Hugo Chávez.

Oil, Power, and Poverty in Angola

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
José León García-Rodríguez ◽  
Francisco J. García-Rodríguez ◽  
Carlos Castilla-Gutiérrez ◽  
Silvério Adriano Major
Keyword(s):  
Resource Curse ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
International Markets ◽  
Small Population ◽  
High Price ◽  
Large Country ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Distribution Of Wealth ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Unequal Distribution Of Wealth

Abstract:Angola is a large country with a relatively small population and abundant natural resources, including oil reserves. The high price fetched by oil, the mainstay of the Angolan economy, on international markets has helped this leading producer attain growth rates that are among the highest in the world. However, Angola is also noted for its unequal distribution of wealth and notorious political corruption. This article seeks to explore this paradox within the framework of the so-called resource curse theory and analyze the role played by the oil industry in the process.

Development of efficiency increase methods for water injection

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-60
Author(s):  
K.I. Mustafaev ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Water Injection ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Current Interest ◽  
Residual Oil ◽  
Production Well ◽  
Field Development ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Production Wells ◽  
Efficiency Increase

The production of residual oil reserves in the fields being in a long-term exploitation is of current interest. The extraction of residual oil in such fields was cost-effective and simple technological process and is always hot topic for researchers. Oil wells become flooded in the course of time. The appearance of water shows in production wells in the field development and operation is basically negative occurrence and requires severe control. Namely for this reason, the studies were oriented, foremost, to the prevention of water shows in production well and the elimination of its complications as well. The paper discusses the ways of reflux efficiency increase during long-term exploitation and at the final stages of development to prevent the irrigation and water use in production wells.

Rethinking the Conflict “Resource Curse”: How Oil Wealth Prevents Center-Seeking Civil Wars

2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Paine
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Revenue Sources ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
The Government ◽  
Oil Wealth ◽  
Oil Revenues ◽  
Civil War Onset

AbstractA broad literature on how oil wealth affects civil war onset argues that oil production engenders violent contests to capture a valuable prize from vulnerable governments. By contrast, research linking oil wealth to durable authoritarian regimes argues that oil-rich governments deter societal challenges by strategically allocating enormous revenues to enhance military capacity and to provide patronage. This article presents a unified formal model that evaluates how these competing mechanisms affect overall incentives for center-seeking civil wars. The model yields two key implications. First, large oil-generated revenues strengthen the government and exert an overall effect that decreases center-seeking civil war propensity. Second, oil revenues are less effective at preventing center-seeking civil war relative to other revenue sources, which distinguishes overall and relative effects. Revised statistical results test overall rather than relative effects by omitting the conventional but posttreatment covariate of income per capita, and demonstrate a consistent negative association between oil wealth and center-seeking civil war onset.

Fiscal Institutions and Macroeconomic Management in the United Arab Emirates

2019 ◽  
pp. 356-426
Author(s):  
Raimundo Soto
Keyword(s):  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Resource Curse ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Fiscal Rules ◽  
Fiscal Institutions ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Oil Wealth ◽  
Macroeconomic Management

The UAE has seemingly escaped “the natural resource curse”: it is one of the richest countries in the world and ranks comparatively highly on business environment, infrastructure, and institutional development. Symptoms of the curse can nevertheless be found in the very low growth in labor productivity, massive public sector overemployment, and the inability to counteract instability induced by oil price cycles. This chapter shows that fiscal policy is highly ineffective as a countercyclical tool due to the absence of income and ad-valorem taxes. Stabilizing instruments—such as open-budgeting procedures or fiscal rules—are notoriously absent. Why would a country design its fiscal, monetary, and exchange rate policies so that they allow for high levels of pro-cyclicality, thereby hampering efficiency and long-run growth? A political economy explanation is developed whereby weak fiscal institutions are an agreed-upon mechanism to secure political stability and transfer oil wealth among emiratis and to future generations.

Fiscal Outcomes in Bahrain

2019 ◽  
pp. 329-355
Author(s):  
Hoda El Enbaby ◽  
Hoda Selim
Keyword(s):  
Price Volatility ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
General Context ◽  
Budgetary Process ◽  
Oil Price Volatility ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Oil Rents ◽  
The Government ◽  
Oil Wealth ◽  
Budget Execution

This chapter argues that political economy factors, rather than oil wealth, shape the budgetary process and outcomes in Bahrain. Fiscal volatility and excessive current spending (in the form of wages, social welfare, and subsidies) leading to unsustainable non-oil deficits are not fully derived from oil price volatility. Weak institutions, including those underlying the budgetary process, have contributed to some fiscal laxity. These have allowed rulers to use current spending as a channel for the redistribution of oil rents and to secure political stability and allegiance to the regime in a turbulent sociopolitical environment. The budgetary process has been undermined by the structure of the bicameral parliament, while the absence of restrictions on parliament to amend the budget weakens the position of the executive. In the general context of limited transparency and accountability, the government may also be exercising its discretionary powers over the budget execution but this cannot be known.

Defining the “Bolivarian Revolution”: Hugo Chávez's Venezuela

2001 ◽  
Vol 100 (643) ◽  
pp. 80-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McCoy ◽  
Laura Neuman
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Bolivarian Revolution ◽  
Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chávez has taken on the mantle of the people's will. He has also taken on an ever-larger share of political power and shown an increasing interest in spreading his “Bolivarian revolution” to the downtrodden in nearby Colombia, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

scholarly journals A Starving Revolution: ID Cards and Food Rationing in Bolivarian Venezuela

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 590-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Ragas
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Database System ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Bolivarian Revolution ◽  
Surveillance Technology ◽  
Identity Card ◽  
The Government ◽  
Identity Cards ◽  
Hugo Chavez

In this essay, I examine the controversy around the “Carnet de la Patria,” a national identity card issued in Venezuela in December 2016. I argue that this ID card belongs to a larger project of surveillance and regulation of identity developed by the Bolivarian Revolution and implemented by the late Hugo Chavez and continued by current president Nicolas Maduro. Amid its worst economic crisis, the government claims that the new ID card will allow citizens a better access to goods from supermarkets, replacing the fingerprint system (“captahuella”) that provoked massive protests in 2014. Opponents to this document have highlighted the parallel with the cards that exist in Cuba (“ration books”), and the manipulation of the database system to benefit only those who support the government and are already registered in previous official databases. The Venezuelan case provides an intriguing scenario that defies the regional region addressed to provide personal cards to undocumented groups. It also provides valuable comparative lessons about the re-emergence of surveillance technology and identity cards in modern authoritarian regimes.

Comparison and Evaluation of Engine Performance, Emission, Noise and Wear of Diesel and Karanja Oil Methyl Ester Biodiesel in a 980HP Military Turbo Charged CIDI Engine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Kumar Pandey ◽  
M. R. Nandgaonkar ◽  
Umang Pandey ◽  
S. Suresh ◽  
Vijay R. Deshmukh
Keyword(s):  
Methyl Ester ◽  
Engine Performance ◽  
Lubricating Oil ◽  
Oxides Of Nitrogen ◽  
Metal Debris ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Endurance Tests ◽  
Smoke Opacity ◽  
Karanja Oil

Global warming due to engine exhaust pollution and rapid depletion of petroleum oil reserves, has given us the opportunity to find bio fuels as alternative to diesel fuel. Biodiesel is an oxygenated, sulphur free, non-toxic, biogradable and renewable fuel. Karanja biodiesel is prepared using Karanja oil and methanol by the process of transesterification. In the present study, a military 720 kW turbo charged, compression ignition diesel injection (CIDI) engine was fuelled with diesel and Karanja oil methyl ester (KOME) biodiesel respectively. These were subjected to 100 hours long term endurance tests. The performances of fuels were evaluated in terms of brake horse power (kW), torque, heat release rates and specific fuel consumption. The emission of carbon monoxide (CO), unburnt hydrocarbon (UHC), oxides of nitrogen NOx and smoke opacity with both fuels were also compared. Lubricating oil samples, drawn from the engine after 100 hours long term endurance tests, were subjected to elemental analysis. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was done for quantification of various metal debris concentrations. Use of Karanja oil methyl ester (KOME) biodiesel in a turbo charged CIDI engine was found compatible with engine performance along with lower emission characteristics (UHC 70%, CO 85.6%), and exhaust noise 11.9% but 13.7% higher NOx emissions. Engine metals wear were found 32% lower for a KOME biodiesel operated engine.

scholarly journals Incomplete construction: Russian and foreign experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 212 ◽  
pp. 04007
Author(s):  
Olga Nikishina ◽  
Olga Nikishina
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Economic Effect ◽  
Foreign Experience ◽  
State And Society ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
The City ◽  
Threat To Life

The study is devoted to the objects of unfinished construction (hereinafter - UCO). The problem of the UCOs is urgent both for the regions and for the Russian Federation as a whole. The main reasons for the large number of the unfinished construction objects are analyzed in the paper. The global experience of solving the issue of long-term construction is considered. The unfinished objects spoil the architectural outlook of the city, while the lands are used inefficiently and the necrosis of capital occurs. In Russia, as a rule, conservation of these objects is not done that creates a real threat to life and health of people. The state and society cannot count on the economic effect of these objects, and they do not justify the goals and the means invested in them. Based on the conclusions drawn, measures are proposed that will allow preventing the suspension of the objects under construction at the moment, and complete the construction of the objects that begun earlier.

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