Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared

by Miriam R. Lowi

Overview

How can we make sense of Algeria's post-colonial experience - the tragedy of unfulfilled expectations, the descent into violence, the resurgence of the state? Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics explains why Algeria's domestic political economy unravelled from the mid-1980s, and how the regime eventually managed to regain power and hegemony. Miriam Lowi argues the importance of leadership decisions for political outcomes, and extends the argument to explain the variation in stability in oil-exporting states following economic shocks. Comparing Algeria with Iran, Iraq, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, she asks why some states break down and undergo regime change, while others remain stable, or manage to re-stabilise after a period of instability. In contrast with exclusively structuralist accounts of the rentier state, this book demonstrates, in a fascinating and accessible study, that political stability is a function of the way in which structure and agency combine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107402966
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/12/2011
Series:	Cambridge Middle East Studies , #32
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Miriam R. Lowi is Professor of Political Science at The College of New Jersey. Her previous publications include Water and Power: the Politics of a Scarce Resource in the Jordan River Basin (Cambridge, 1995) and Environment and Security: Discourses and Practices (2000).

Table of Contents

Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Oil shocks and the challenge to states; 2. Natural resources and political instability; Part II. Algeria and its Discontents: 3. From conquest to independence; 4. The elaboration of a system; 5. From boom to bust, and … verging on breakdown; 6. The persistence of violence and the process of re-equilibration; Part III. Comparisons and Conclusions: 7. Variations on a theme: comparators in the Muslim world; 8. Oil wealth and the poverty of politics; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

It is an intellectual tour-de-force that contrasts the variation to economic shocks the author finds in her study of Algeria to that of Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. A highly recommended book for anyone interested in Algeria’s tortuous path since its independence, in the problems of development in general, and in those of hydrocarbon economies in particular. Meticulously researched, and broadly comparative in scope, this book is a welcome addition both to the study of Algeria and to the larger theoretical question that provides its focus.”
– Diederik Vandewalle, Middle East Journal

" Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics is not only a well-written case study of Algeria, tracing its political trajectory from independence, but also a well documented study of rentier states. Its comparative perspective reveals the importance of leadership choices over natural resource endowments."-Jean-Marc Kilolo-Malambwe, Institut de la statistique du Québec, African Studies Review

From the Publisher