Oil and Democracy

Oil and Democracy
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Oil and Democracy
Michael Ross’ “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” shows that oil has odd democratic properties compared to other minerals. In particular, the democratization effect disappears or shrinks if a country’s rising incomes are contributed to by oil wealth. The researcher refers to the Arab Middle East to show why many oil-rich countries are not democratic. Many countries whose income generation is significantly attributed to oil, such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Indonesia, Congo, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, have political problems that emanate from the lack of democratization (Ross, 2001). That might be the reason why many Mideast governments have authoritarian systems of governance.
Ross uses three primary causal mechanisms, namely the rentier, modernization, and repression effects, to explain the association between authoritarian rule and oil exports. The rentier effect suggests that governments with more oil resources use patronage and low tax rates to alleviate pressures for accountability (Ross, 2001). Additionally, a repression effect shows that oil wealth retards...