INT 200 Study Guide - Final Guide: Rent-Seeking, Socioeconomics, Resource Curse
Document Summary
Behavioralist perspective: suggests that natural resource abundance leads to various types of emotional/irrational behavior on the part of political elites, in turn leading to poor economic policy-making. Rational actor perspective: portrays political actors as rational utility-maximising people. Problem w/ natural resources isn"t that it leads to irrational elite behavior but that it provides them w/ opportunity to line their own pockets by engaging in rent seeking. State-centered perspective: natural resource abundance harms economy by influencing state"s capacity to promote economic development. Historico-structuralist perspective: resource abundance harms economy b/c of its effects on the relative power of different social groups or classes. So, resource strengthens well-connected business groups which pressures gov to pursue policies that serve group"s interests instead of common poor. To reconsider the connections between natural resources and conflict . To propose the need for recognition of a new socio-economics of resource governance .
