Exploring a transition strategy for hydrocarbon-dependent Rentier states: A focus on Qatar

Oil-rich countries have oftentimes been confronted with the challenge of diversifying their economies away from oil dependence given the exhaustible nature of these fossil fuels. Investing in sovereign wealth funds has been one of the most ubiquitous ways of preparing for the post-oil period. Investing in sovereign wealth funds rather than directly injecting the oil revenues in the economy not only precludes the outbreak of the Dutch Disease (which is known for giving rise to an exchange rate appreciation, crowding out non-oil industries and keeping the economy reliant on oil), but it also saves for future generations. Yet, in the case of Azerbaijan, the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), founded in 1999, has only increased this reliance on oil. Using the rentier states theoretical framework, this paper will argue that the direct control over SOFAZ exercised by the president and the lack of consultation with the NGOs have made corruption easier, making the task of economic diversification more difficult. This has been possible because through corruption the president has often resorted to oil money to buy peace rather than invest it in economic diversification. As a result, since the foundation of SOFAZ, the country is more reliant, not less, on oil. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v8i1.223

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Systems of Governance and Politics of Opposition in the Super-Rentiers

10.1093/oso/9780190861995.003.0003 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Courtney Freer

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Political Life ◽

Political Environment ◽

Popular Politics ◽

Rentier State ◽

Critical Information ◽

Independent States ◽

The Government ◽

Legal Frameworks ◽

Rentier States

This chapter provides a critical background on the country cases by examining their brief political histories as independent states. It also gives critical information about the legal frameworks of such states to highlight where and how Islamist groups can act in these states. By providing such descriptions, this chapter demonstrates the extent to which these states, in regime or popular politics, either adhere or fail to adhere to the government type and political environment normally associated with the rentier state. The chapter also reveals critical commonalities among the super-rentier states—they are governed by powerful ruling families; institutionalized political life is hampered; and civil society and political life remain largely informal—while also indicating their differences, which arose in light of their differing sociocultural and economic backgrounds.

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Uncharted Territory

10.1093/oso/9780190861995.003.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Courtney Freer

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Arabian Peninsula ◽

Academic Work ◽

Political Islam ◽

Original Research ◽

Social Policies ◽

Detailed Explanation ◽

Rentier States ◽

The Way

This introductory chapter outlines where and how this book contributes original research to the existing scholarship on politics of rentier states in the Arabian Peninsula, as well as the academic work on political Islam through a brief literature review. This book will demonstrate that political Islam serves as a prominent voice critiquing social policies, as well as promoting more strictly political, and often populist or reformist, views supported by a great many Gulf citizens. As laid out in this chapter, this book demonstrates that the way that Islamist organizations operate in the unique environment of the super-rentiers is distinct. It also presents information about the methodology and sources used, as well as a detailed explanation for the use of country cases chosen. The chapter closes by describing the format of the book.

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Just Transition as a Tool for Preventing Energy Poverty among Women in Mining Areas—A Case Study of the Silesia Region, Poland

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14123372 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (12) ◽

pp. 3372

Author(s):

Olga Janikowska ◽

Joanna Kulczycka

Keyword(s):

Age Groups ◽

Single Women ◽

Coal Industry ◽

Major Conclusion ◽

Energy Transformation ◽

Energy Poverty ◽

Mining Areas ◽

Transition Strategy ◽

Mining Regions

The inevitable energy transformation can be perceived as an opportunity and as a threat to the actions undertaken to prevent energy poverty in European mining regions. Silesia is a special exemplification of the European region whose economy has been based on coal industry for centuries. There are still about 70,000 miners and coal is also widely used for heating households. Based on developed map of jobs lost in mining and related industry and the demographic and social data the proposal of activities addressed to different group of people has been created. It was also indicated that energy poverty in Poland mainly concerns households inhabited by single women. Therefore, the major conclusion of the paper is postulated that the Just Transition strategy should be extended by issues strictly related to the situation of women in the future labor market. Additionally, the concept of a special hub for women, whose aim would be professional activation of women of various age groups, has been introduced.

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A Theory of Civil Conflict and Democracy in Rentier States

Scandinavian Journal of Economics ◽

10.1111/j.1467-9442.2006.00471.x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 108 (4) ◽

pp. 571-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Silje Aslaksen ◽

Ragnar Torvik

Keyword(s):

Civil Conflict ◽

Rentier States

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The Full-Scale Pacs Archive

Acta Radiologica ◽

10.1177/02841851960373p281 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 37 (3P2) ◽

pp. 838-846 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

S. A. Nissen-Meyer ◽

U. Fink ◽

M. Pleier ◽

C. Becker

Keyword(s):

Digital Image ◽

Conventional Radiography ◽

Full Scale ◽

Model Calculations ◽

Analog To Digital ◽

Alternative Technologies ◽

Transition Strategy ◽

Hospital Operations ◽

Picture Archiving And Communication ◽

Image Archives

Purpose: Increasing percentages of digital modalities in radiology, in particular of digital image acquisition in conventional radiography, call for digital reporting, communication, and archiving techniques. These techniques are prerequisites for the “filmless” hospital. The first 2 have been covered extensively in the literature and by vendors. However, as regards online digital image archives there are still no satisfactory concepts available in the medical field. The present paper puts forward some suggestions as to how this situation could be improved. Material and Methods: Analyses of radiology operations consider the prevailing PACS (picture archiving and communication system) archive concepts that use optical discs to be too small, too slow and too cumbersome to manage and therefore unable to function as comprehensive image archives for filmless hospitals. We suggest borrowing and adapting the well tested archive technologies from space research and the oil and broadcasting industries which have much higher capacities and speeds and better software interfacing possibilities. With such technologies the needs of filmless hospital operations can be met. Results: A feasible concept for a transition strategy from conventional analog to digital archives is presented. Model calculations of the necessary investments and potential savings, including generous placement of viewing stations in the entire hospital, indicate amortization periods of 3.8–4.8 years. Conclusion: Alternative technologies for digital image archives already today make full-scale PACS for filmless hospitals technologically and conceptually feasible and financially mandatory.

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Formal Query Building with Query Structure Prediction for Complex Question Answering over Knowledge Base

Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence ◽

10.24963/ijcai.2020/519 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yongrui Chen ◽

Huiying Li ◽

Yuncheng Hua ◽

Guilin Qi

Keyword(s):

Knowledge Base ◽

Structure Prediction ◽

Question Answering ◽

State Transition ◽

Knowledge Bases ◽

Second Stage ◽

Transition Strategy ◽

Query Structure ◽

Two Stages ◽

Complex Question

Formal query building is an important part of complex question answering over knowledge bases. It aims to build correct executable queries for questions. Recent methods try to rank candidate queries generated by a state-transition strategy. However, this candidate generation strategy ignores the structure of queries, resulting in a considerable number of noisy queries. In this paper, we propose a new formal query building approach that consists of two stages. In the first stage, we predict the query structure of the question and leverage the structure to constrain the generation of the candidate queries. We propose a novel graph generation framework to handle the structure prediction task and design an encoder-decoder model to predict the argument of the predetermined operation in each generative step. In the second stage, we follow the previous methods to rank the candidate queries. The experimental results show that our formal query building approach outperforms existing methods on complex questions while staying competitive on simple questions.

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