It was the successful iranian revolution in 1979 that led saudi shias to demand equal rights and government reforms al. Water free fulltext a rentier state under blockade. In the timorese context, the state has become a rentier state because the government is the primary recipient of petroleum revenues beblawi 1987. The revenue earned by a rentier state is free to be distributed without any consequences or supervision. The symbiosis of sectarianism, authoritarianism, and. A rentier state is defined as a state whose primary function is to distribute revenue derived from the rent of indigenous resources to external clients ross 2001. The rentier state in the arab war id hazem beblawi introduction the concept of a rentier state has gained renewed interest with the advent of the oil era and the emergence of the new arab oilproducing states. Sectoral transformations in neopatrimonial rentier states. Jul 27, 2015 introduction hazem beblawi and giacomo luciani. Oil wealth and regime stability in light of the arab. Later works still held to the broad characterizations of the rentier state that luciani, beblawi, and others developed in the 1980s and 1990s. In political science and international relations theory, a rentier state is a state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the rent of indigenous resources to external clients. The politics of demobilization in rentier autocracies desha m girod, megan a stewart, and meir r walters conflict. Economic crisis and postrentier democratization in the arab.
Hazem beblawi, a banker from cairo, refined the definition two decades later by adding four new elements which have since become canonical. Rentier state, confirmed by various quantitative data and qualitative analyses. This article investigates qatars sustainability crisis of the high levels of water, electricity and food use. To understand such a state of affairs, this article provides an analysis of the saudi economys accumulation regime. This allows for the wealth to be distributed in a politically charged manner to favoured sectors and social groups. In boundaries and state territory in the middle east and north africa. Ross uses regression analysis to demonstrate how, as a states value of oil or mineral exports rises, there is a. Quite the opposite, forged by oil exports, the structures of its rentier economy are wellestablished and difficult to push forward. This article examines the countrys ability to achieve this objective by.
A theory of late rentierism in the arab states of the gulf 5 the 1990 invasion of kuwait and the subsequent 19901991 gulf war, the sanctions from 1990 to 2003, and the 2003 iraq war and the political and economic problems that have ensued since then. Economic crisis and postrentier democratization in the. This is a fact of paramount importance, cutting across the whole of the social fabric of the economy affecting the role of the state in the society beblawi, 1990, p. In a rentier state, a small segment of the society has access directly in the creation of wealth while the rest involves in distribution and utilization of the wealth 6,8. Previously he served as deputy prime minister and minister of finance in 2011. The rentier stateresource curse narrative and the state of the arabian gulf emilie rutledge. In a celebrated passage, adam smith distinguished between. Beblawi, hazem 1987 the rentier state in the arab world in the arab studies quarterly, volume 9, issue no. Are rentier monarchies a viable road to development in the. Feb 04, 2016 beblawi, hazem 1987 the rentier state in the arab world in the arab studies quarterly, volume 9, issue no. Fiscal institutions in a rentier state the case of the. Income measurement in arab states 2 the rentier state in. Rentierism, far from being saddled with being the sole explanatory tenet for the entirety of the middle eastern political universe, should instead be treated as a trait of gulf politics introduction. Similarly, nathan jensen and leonard wantchekon have concluded, the key mechanism linking 1 countries vary tremendously in their taxnontax revenue mix.
Since the extraction of oil and its export policy are solely controlled by the national government, all the. Hazem beblawi, e rentier s tate in the arab w orld, in. The states autonomy from taxation also allows for an unjust distribution of wealth within the state. Income measurement in arab states 2 the rentier state in the. A theoretical framework, andhazem beblawi, the rentier state in the arab world, in luciani and beblawi, eds. Rentier curse and the challenges to development in the middle. The rentier state theory situates the state as the unit of analysis by explaining how petroleum dependency shapes the states relations with society and its role in economic development. Buy the rentier state by hazem beblawi, giacomo luciani from waterstones today. Beblawi and giacomo luciani in an edited volume published in 1987. The economic problems of saudi arabia do not stem from the weakness of its institutions.
The country is at a crossroads, as evidenced by both its unsustainable economic model and the plan that the government proposed in spring 2016 to overcome dependence on oil, vision 2030. Amir faisal, the leader of the 1916 arab revolt and a firm believer in the idea of arab unity had hypothesized that once the victors of world war i would concede arab independence and help them establish their local competence, the natural influences of race, language and interest would soon draw all arabs into one people. Croom helm and the istituto affari internazionali, 1987. Rentier state was now clearly counterposed to an ideal type production state implicitly. State formation processes in rentier states columbia university. The particular case of gccs countries as rentier state has been at. In current politicalscience and internationalrelations theory, a rentier state is a state which. Is rentier state theory sufficient to explain the politics. The rentier state 1st edition hazem beblawi giacomo. Pdf this article aims to analyze the implications of the arab uprisings on the rentier. The oil price drop which occurred in international markets in 2014 has revived concerns about the economic situation of saudi arabia. The rentier state by hazem beblawi, giacomo luciani waterstones. This tends to make the citizenry in rentier states deeply opposed to reforms that promise longterm gains in return for shortterm losses beblawi and luciani 1987.
Rentier states are sometimes part of rentier economies, where the economy is primarily supported by state expenditure. Written by alessandro zicchieri further, a dependence upon oil for state finances has been shown to offer a rentier effect. Yet, faisal requested from the great powers of world war i that. Income measurement in arab states thomas stauffer 2. The concept of a rentier state has gained renewed interest with the advent of the oil era. The argument that timorleste is a rentier state based on various characteristics, namely independence of the state visavis domestic economy, composition of gdp, proportion of public expenditure as domestic economy, employment structure, and dutch disease. In addition, beblawiluciani define a political system as a rentier state only if a minority in the population is engaged in the generation of the rent, while the majority is. The rentier state in the arab world hazem beblawi 3. This is a fact of paramount importance, cutting across the whole of the social fabric of the economy affecting the role.
Contrarily, the theory of the rentier state largely neglected in the study of peace and war in this respect suggests that regimes use revenue from abundant resources to buy off peace through patronage, largescale distributive policies and effective repression. Third parties are taxed in the rentier state by paying profits for commodities. This phase is tied to dangers of splitting a fragile rentier state. Beyond these factors, arguably less important to the. Beblawi 1990, however, delineates four basic characteristics of a rentier state which are a rent. Click and collect from your local waterstones or get free uk delivery on orders over. The implications of the rentier state theory regarding the. In a celebrated passage, adam smith distinguished between rent and other sources of income.
With 77% of the states budget derived from oil revenues hvidt, 20. The rentier state in the arab world hazem beblawi introduction the concept of a rentier state has gained renewed interest with the advent of the oil era and the emergence of the new arab oilproducing states. Rentier state theory and the arab uprisings uluslararas. In general, a rentier state is a government that is able to extract significant rents from international transactions and thereby become the dominant actor in the political economy beblawi and luciani, 1987. The macrobehaviour of oilrentier states in the arab region mahmoud abdelfadil 5. The origin of the rentier model in the middle east ifri. This volume, first published in 1987, is devoted to a discussion of interrelations of the economic base with the cultural, social and political structures, and of its impact on the state.
Rentier curse and the challenges to development in the. The macrobehaviour of oil rentier states in the arab region mahmoud abdelfadil 5. This volume, first published in 1987, is devoted to a discussion of inte. The rentier state theory rst has received renewed academic traction in its ability to explicate. This paper proposes that the rentier state and resource curse. Since the extraction of oil and its export policy are solely controlled by the national government, all the revenue from oil rent flow into the authoritarian regimes coffer. Is rentier state theory sufficient to explain the politics of the uae. This paper develops a theoretical model to analyze whether a rentier state can diversify its economy away from the rent revenue and hence sustain the economic development and preserve the statusquo. The disproportionate role of state resources in gcc nationals lives is re.
And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear that these movements these movements of. A theoretical construct developed by hazem beblawi and giacomo luciani, which categorizes some countries in terms of their disproportionate reliance upon one or several inherited sources of rents, such as mineral resources, notably oil and gas. Patterns and problems of economic development in rentier states. Rentier state theory, arab uprisings, oil and politics, political economy of the. Economic diversification potential in the rentier states. Nauruans were given free education, health, telephone service, and. Considering the decarbonization process of the global economy and rapidly fall in economic value of hydrocarbons in the face of the supply glut, rentier states depending on oil and gas revenues.
A theory of late rentierism in the arab states of the gulf 5 the 1990 invasion of kuwait and the subsequent 19901991 gulf war, the sanctions from 1990 to 2003, and the 2003 iraq war and the political and economic problems that have ensued since. The idea of the rentier state lacking a positive and societallyengaged economic policy, therefore, probably held water then. Rentier and nonrentier states in the arab spring a cursory look at the events of the arab spring suggests that there is a. Sectoral transformations in neopatrimonial rentier states 7 the most influential arab states, with the most populous and second largest economy after saudi arabia. The first phase of the debate was concerned with oil resources and oil and gasrich states.
A main theorist of the rentier state theories argues that in a rentier state, the government is the principal recipient of the external rent in the economy. The rentier state hazem beblawi, giacomo luciani eds. Though utterly free enterprise or ment employees in. According to beblawi an essential characteristic of rentier states is the fact that only a few are engaged in the. A theory of late rentierism in the arab states of the gulf. The rentier state by hazem beblawi, giacomo luciani. Beblawi began his career as a lecturer at the university of alexandria in 1965 and taught economyrelated courses at several universities, including the university of southern california, until 1980. The ratio of state to societal resources, however, is speci. An assessment of the role of nigerian state in enforcing. The rentier stateresource curse narrative and the state of the. Is rentier state theory sufficient to explain the politics of. Pdf the palestinian authority and the rentier state.
To facilitate the free flow of ideas and knowledge through publishing the products. Egypt was the second arab state after tunisia proclaiming its will to overcome failures of importsubstituting industrialisation at the beginning of the 1970s. The concept of a rentier state has gained renewed interest with the advent of the oil era and the. The rentier state theory rst has been proposed to explain the unique economicpolitic nature of the authoritarian and resourcerich countries starting in the 1970s 7,8. A dictionary of business and management in the middle east and north africa authors.
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