IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/rp2008-35.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Resources and the Political Economy of State Fragility in Conflict States: Iraq and Somalia

Author

Listed:
  • Ghassan Dibeh

Abstract

This paper studies state failure and governance in two conflict-states in the Middle East: Iraq and Somalia. Iraq is currently undergoing a social experiment under which a new form of government is being constructed after the passage of autocratic rule. The government envisaged is a consociational democratic state designed a priori as a political mechanism for the redistribution of resources, mainly oil. Somalia represents a stateless society or anarchy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghassan Dibeh, 2008. "Resources and the Political Economy of State Fragility in Conflict States: Iraq and Somalia," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2008-35, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2008-35
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/rp2008-35.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Foote & William Block & Keith Crane & Simon Gray, 2004. "Economic Policy and Prospects in Iraq," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(3), pages 47-70, Summer.
    2. Martin C. McGuire & Mancur Olson, 1998. "The Economics of Autocracy and Majority Rule: The Invisible Hand and the Use of Force," International Economic Association Series, in: Silvio Borner & Martin Paldam (ed.), The Political Dimension of Economic Growth, chapter 3, pages 38-73, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Torvik, Ragnar, 2002. "Natural resources, rent seeking and welfare," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 455-470, April.
    4. Liam Anderson & Gareth Stansfield, 2005. "The Implications of Elections for Federalism in Iraq: Toward a Five-Region Model," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 359-382, Summer.
    5. Findlay, Ronald, 1989. "Is the new political economy relevant to developing countries ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 292, The World Bank.
    6. Silje Aslaksen & Ragnar Torvik, 2006. "A Theory of Civil Conflict and Democracy in Rentier States," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(4), pages 571-585, December.
    7. Olsson, Ola, 2007. "Conflict diamonds," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 267-286, March.
    8. Mubarak, Jamil A., 1997. "The "hidden hand" behind the resilience of the stateless economy of Somalia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(12), pages 2027-2041, December.
    9. Leeson, Peter T., 2007. "Better off stateless: Somalia before and after government collapse," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 689-710, December.
    10. Ken Menkhaus, 2003. "State collapse in Somalia: second thoughts," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(97), pages 405-422, September.
    11. Olson, Mancur, 1993. "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(3), pages 567-576, September.
    12. Ghassan Dibeh, 2005. "The Political Economy of Postwar Reconstruction in Lebanon," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-44, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Karras, Georgios, 1996. "The Optimal Government Size: Further International Evidence on the Productivity of Government Services," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(2), pages 193-203, April.
    14. Anke Hoeffler & Paul Collier, 2005. "Democracy and Resource Rents," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-016, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baliki, Ghassan & Brück, Tilman & Ferguson, Neil T.N. & Kebede, Sindu W., 2017. "Micro-Foundations of Fragility: Concepts, Measurement and Application," IZA Discussion Papers 11188, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Makochekanwa, Albert & Kwaramba, Marko, 2010. "Dwindling access to basic services in Zimbabwe," MPRA Paper 28271, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Amara, Jomana, 2012. "Implications of military stabilization efforts on economic development and security: The case of Iraq," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 244-254.
    4. Ghassan Baliki & Tilman Brück & Neil T. N. Ferguson & Sindu Workneh Kebede, 2022. "Fragility exposure index: Concepts, measurement, and application," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 639-660, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2011. "Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9624.
    2. Dosso, David, 2023. "Institutional Quality and Financial Development in Resource-Rich Countries: A Nonlinear Panel Data Approach," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 113-137.
    3. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino A. Candela, 2020. "Productive specialization, peaceful cooperation and the problem of the predatory state: lessons from comparative historical political economy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 331-352, March.
    4. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055.
    5. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Ola Olsson, 0. "Windfall Gains, Political Economy and Economic Development," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 17(suppl_1), pages -109.
    6. Andrew T. Young, 2016. "What does it take for a roving bandit settle down? Theory and an illustrative history of the Visigoths," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 75-102, July.
    7. Leeson,Peter T., 2014. "Anarchy Unbound," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107025806.
    8. Ennio E. Piano, 2019. "State capacity and public choice: a critical survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 289-309, January.
    9. Al-Ubaydli, Omar, 2012. "Natural resources and the tradeoff between authoritarianism and development," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 137-152.
    10. Matthew Baker & Erwin Bulte, 2010. "Kings and Vikings: on the dynamics of competitive agglomeration," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 207-227, June.
    11. Baker, Matthew & Bulte, Erwin & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2010. "The origins of governments: from anarchy to hierarchy," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 215-242, June.
    12. Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Murtazashvili, 2016. "When does the emergence of a stationary bandit lead to property insecurity?," Rationality and Society, , vol. 28(3), pages 335-360, August.
    13. Fernando del Río, 2021. "The impact of rent seeking on social infrastructure and productivity," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 1741-1760, August.
    14. Adamson, Jordan, 2020. "Political institutions, resources, and war: Theory and evidence from ancient Rome," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2011. "Dictators And Their Viziers: Endogenizing The Loyalty–Competence Trade‐Off," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(5), pages 903-930, October.
    16. Fuhai Hong & Dong Zhang, 2023. "Bureaucratic beliefs and law enforcement," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 196(3), pages 357-379, September.
    17. Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Murtazashvili, 2015. "Anarchy, self-governance, and legal titling," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 287-305, March.
    18. Robert Fleck & F. Hanssen, 2009. "“Rulers ruled by women”: an economic analysis of the rise and fall of women’s rights in ancient Sparta," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 221-245, July.
    19. Casey B. Mulligan & Ricard Gil & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2004. "Do Democracies Have Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 51-74, Winter.
    20. Dietrich Fischer & Jurgen Brauer, 2003. "Twenty questions for peace economics: A research agenda," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 223-236.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democratization; Failed states; Natural resources; Political science; War;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:rp2008-35. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.