Buying Quiescence: The Influence of Resource Reliance on Citizens’ Demand for Democracy
Abstract
Revenues from oil, minerals and gas are important to many states around the world. Some
countries rely so heavily on these revenues that they have received the epithet “resource-reliant
states.” Controversy remains regarding whether this reliance induces the public to push for
less pro-democratic demands in such states. Some argue that resource reliance is likely to
undermine citizens’ motivation to demand accountability from - and representation in - their
government. Others contend that resource reliance is unlikely to lead to political quietude
among citizens in a country. To test these competing claims, this article uses the Varieties of
Democracy (V-Dem) dataset on pro-democratic mass mobilization in 153 autocratic countries
observed between 1971 and 2016. The regression analysis reveals that there is no statistical
association between reliance on resource rents—whether total rents, oil or mineral rents— and
pro-democratic mass mobilization in autocratic countries. The findings cut against the longstanding view held by the proponents of the resource curse theory in the rentier state literature
that political quiescence is more associated with countries that rely on resource wealth
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Date
2023-11Author
Ahmed, Taiwo
Publication type
article, other scientific
ISSN
1653-8919
Series/Report no.
Working Papers
2023:16
Language
eng