Rentierism

If oil rents produce peculiarly damaging political and social outcomes in MENA, is this due to the unusual size of those rents or to the interaction of those rents with other factors?

The primary damage to political and social outcomes is due to the sheer size of the oil rents in the MENA region. The economic dependence that nations have on oil production creates an environment in which rents can dominate. If oil rents make up the majority of the economic output of a nation, the size has to be the dominant factor in the analysis. With no “need” to tax their populace, authoritarians can prevail with no accountability mechanism. The revenue from this oil will allow for higher government spending, especially on the repressive apparatus of these regimes in the region. We spoke in class of the “resource curse” (Ross 328), detailing how the most natural resource-rich countries are the most politically weak and troubled.

However, Ross mentions another explanation for the lack of democratic institutions in the region derived from modernization theory: “democracy is caused by a collection of social and cultural changes—including occupational specialization, urbanization, and higher levels of education—that in turn are caused by economic development” (Ross 336). The lack of these changes is an important factor when considering the power and scope of rentierism in the MENA region. While size alone is a factor at play, there are many factors to consider including geography and lack of economic diversification.