Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / The recent wave of unrest across the Middle East has raised crucial questions about the stability of the remaining regimes in the region. Monarchies have appeared to have weathered the Arab Spring well and have emerged relatively intact while republics such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria have experienced revolutions that have completely overturned existing political and economic systems. Jordan has consistently been praised as a beacon of gradual liberalization in a region where so many dictators have ruthlessly clung to power. Upon closer inspection, however, the Jordanian system is not as well adjusted to democracy and economic capitalism as it may seem. The rentier system, most commonly found in resource rich countries, allows authoritarian regimes to co-opt their populations by using economic rent to supply goods and services usually provided by representative governments. Jordan fulfills a unique role as a rentier state because it does not possess natural resources but is instead able to co-opt its citizens as a result of the influx of external rent that the government receives through foreign aid and remittances. Drawing analysis primarily from scholarly articles and making use of media analysis and first person interviews, I examine the current problems facing the Jordanian system and the changes that have taken place as a result of the popular uprisings during the Arab Spring. The larger implications of this research present a roadmap for other entrenched regimes to follow in order to avoid falling into the self reinforcing and destructive system of favors and economic rent. While it may be too late for Jordan to reform its political system without a revolutionary overhaul, other regimes have the potential to work their way out of the rentier system before the network of rentseeking groups in itself becomes a force that not even the regime can stop. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science .

Zugl.: Halle-Wittenberg, University, Diss., 2004.

No / Using a critical political economy approach and the concept of labour precarity, the international dive tourism industry in Sabah, Malaysia and its workers’ vulnerabilities are interrogated. Fieldwork data highlights dive tourism’s socio-economic impacts and the precarity of labour within the international tourism sector and also critiques it as a development strategy for a peripheral region. The paper challenges the optimistic views of labour precarity found in the existing political economy literature. Rather than identifying labour empowerment, evidence demonstrates significant worker vulnerability, uncertainty, and contingency – especially among ethnic minorities – resulting from Malaysia’s state-led rentier economy. / British Countil PMI2 (R18)

Les rentiers et aveux du début du XVIe siècle sont des sources financières qui émanent de la Chambre des comptes de Nantes, institution en charge de la gestion du domaine royal de Bretagne. En 1538, il fait l’objet d’une réformation ordonnée par le roi François Ier, au cours de laquelle les rentiers sont de nouveau élaborés, voire restaurés, et les aveux se multiplient. L’intrusion des délégués du roi en charge de la réformation dans le domaine de Cornouaille constitue le point de départ d’une enquête de terrain où les débirentiers et les vassaux du roi répondant à l’appel du souverain, décrivent avecparfois beaucoup de précisions les terres qu’ils exploitent et les seigneuries qu’ils possèdent. L’exploitation de ces sources permet d’étudier les rapports que les hommes, nobles et tenanciers roturiers, entretiennent avec la terre. Au gré des dépositions écrites et orales, la perception que les acteurs de la société rurale ont de leur espace diffère selon leur appartenance sociale. Composés de petits nobles ancrés dans leur domaine, d’une bourgeoisie rurale en gestation et d’un grand nombre de paysans, ces acteurs définissent leur espace vécu et perçu, et leur espace social. Constitué deterritoires de la plus grande échelle (la tenure) à la plus petite (les terroirs et leur finage), le paysage de Cornouaille est marqué par l’empreinte de l’homme. Qu’il soit noble, notable ou simple paysan, il révèle une société rurale dynamique, défendant avec vigueur les terres dont il a l’usage, soit à titre personnel, soit collectivement. Dès lors, la réformation de 1538 permet de valoriser la Cornouaille et de l’insérer dans les prémices de l’âge d’or de la Bretagne. / The “rentiers” and “aveux” of the beginning of the 16th century are financial sources that come from the “Chambre des Comptes” of Nantes, an institution which managed the Royal County of Brittany. In 1538, King Francis 1st ordered a reform in which the “rentiers” were drawn up again, and even restored, and the number of “aveux” rose. The intrusion of the King’s representatives who were in charge of the reform in the county of Cornouaille was the starting point for a field survey in which the “débirentiers” (annuity debtors) and the vassals, answering the King’s request, described sometimes very precisely the land they ran and the seignories they owned. These sources enable us to study the link between men – nobles and commoner tenant farmers – and the land they owned. Through the written and oral depositions, the perception that rural people had of their area depended on their social status. These people – minor nobles anchored in their land, a rising number of rural middle classes and numerous peasants - defined the land they lived in, the land they perceived, and their social space. Made up of territories from the largest (the tenure) to the smallest (the terroirs and their finage), the Cornouaille landscape was defined by man’s mark. Nobles, notables or simple peasants, all revealed a dynamic rural society that defended the land they used, either for themselves or collectively. From then on, the 1538 reform put Cornouaille on the map and gave this region its space in the beginning of the golden age of Brittany

This study’s purpose is testing the rentier state theory’s relationship to the degree of democracy and political stability in the MENA-region. In order to fulfill the aim of this study three research questions are formulated: what kind of relationship exists between oil export per capita and political stability in the MENA region? To what extent does the rentier state theory explain the variation in the degree of democracy in the MENA region? What kind of relationship exists between the rentier state theory and the degree of democracy in the MENA region? To which four hypotheses are formulated. Furthermore, to test these hypotheses and thereby meet the purpose of this study, its methodological approach consists of two regression models: one multiple regression analysis and one bivariate regression analysis. The former is set out to test the relationship between the dependent variable degree of democracy and the independent variables oil rent, tax revenue and political stability, using the control variable HDI. The latter regression analysis is employed to test the relationship between oil export per capita as the independent variable and political stability as the dependent variable. The multiple regression model finds insufficient support for the rentier state theory as an explanatory model for the variation in democracy in the MENA region, only observing a significant relationship with tax revenue. Whereas the bivariate regression model finds a significant positive relationship between oil export per capita and political stability. These findings do not exclude the possibility that the rentier state theory can explain variations in the degree of democracy in other oil rich regions outside of the Middle East and North Africa region. Nor do the results exclude the possibility of the rentier state theory explaining the variations in degree of democracy in certain MENA region countries. Additionally, there is reason to believe that a higher oil export per capita contributes to a higher degree of political stability in the MENA region. The observations of this study are problematized using earlier research that propose further studies including explanatory factors beyond the rentier state theory in the MENA region. These factors include armed conflicts, post colonialism and religious radicalization.

La Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RSE) contemporaine au Nigériaest née de la crise des Ogonis dans les années 1990. Shell et d’autres compagniespétrolières, opérant dans le Delta du Niger, ont essayé de préserver leur réputation à lasuite de la crise, en se présentant comme des acteurs socialement sensibles. Depuis lors,la RSE est devenue une pratique et une politique courante dans les principaux secteurs del’activité économique nationale. Sa mise en oeuvre se traduit principalement par descontributions au développement local à travers la mise à disposition des infrastructuressocio-économiques de base. D'autres dimensions de la RSE ont été largement ignorées etrestent inappliquées. Pourtant, les entreprises, notamment les compagnies pétrolièresmultinationales, en reconnaissent d'autres aspects. Cette recherche examine donc lesraisons de cette disparité entre la conceptualisation et la mise en oeuvre de RSE dans lepays. Elle suggère que la RSE au Nigéria n’est pas seulement conditionnée par le cadrenormatif international et le contexte institutionnel local, mais aussi par les objectifs desacteurs impliqués. / The Ogoni crisis of the 1990s marked the debut of contemporary CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria. Shell and other oil companies operating in the NigerDelta tried to salvage their tarnished reputation in the wake of the crisis by presentingthemselves as socially responsive actors. Since then there has been a remarkableexpansion in CSR activities in the all key economic sectors of the country. These haveprincipally focused on contributing to local development through the provision of basicsocioeconomic infrastructures. Other dimensions of CSR have been largely ignored andremain unapplied. Yet enterprises, especially multinational oil companies, acknowledge thatthere are other aspects. This study examines the reasons for this disparity between theconceptualisation and the implementation of CSR in the country. This study suggests thatthe CSR is not only determined by contextual/institutional factors (local and international)but also by the objectives of actors involved.

Throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member states, a number of significant policy reforms have coincided with significant changes in their socio-economic trajectories. This is especially evident within the employment domain, where a rapidly increasing labour force challenges the capacity of the regions domestic labour markets to provide employment. With increasing unemployment rates, combined with the region’s burgeoning young population, of whom some are well educated and seeking first-time employment, strain is placed on labour markets that were traditionally characterised by high levels of inactivity, a low skills base for the native population, the substantial presence of migrant labour and extensive segmentation and inequalities across wage and gender lines. The political implications for the future political stability and regime legitimacy in these states are easy to imagine and the challenges ahead are substantial. Moreover, policies aiming to sustainably increase the capacity of domestic labour markets to provide employment for the national citizenry are currently developed in a context where the Gulf States have to navigate their repositioning in the global economic architecture by diversifying their economies and reorganizing their socio-political formations towards ‘late rentier’ governance structures. Against this background, this thesis explores how GCC governments are attempting to transform their rentier based political economies, by comparatively analysing recent labour market reforms in three Gulf states, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. A mixed methodological approach has been adopted, whereby through conducting a policy analysis on key labour reforms, namely the Kafala sponsorship system and Nationalisation based policies, alongside elite semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, this thesis has contributed to the identification of the emerging trends which characterise the post-rentier labour market governance structures in the GCC. Furthermore, due to the different development visions adopted by these three states, this thesis highlights the marked diversity within the regionally adopted policies of the Kafala system and Nationalisation based reforms and, thus, contributes to our understanding of the emerging variety of late rentier political economies in the region and their likely future developmental paths.

Par-delà son aspect morphologique, l'accumulation du capital est avant tout une dynamique sociale dans laquelle les configurations que prennent les rapports sociaux jouent un rôle clé. La présente étude a pour but de montrer que dans le contexte particulier d'une économie rentière (type pétrolier, en l'occurrence), la question de la crise du régime rentier d'accumulation peut être appréhendée de façon particulièrement féconde à travers l'analyse de la combinaison des formes institutionnelles considérées comme fondamentales par l'Ecole de la régulation. L'étude se propose, sur la base d'une périodisation des formes institutionnelles, de caractériser successivement dans un premier temps les évolutions qui se sont produites dans les configurations concrètes de chacune des formes institutionnelles qui, ensemble, constituent un mode de régulation. Dans un second temps, il s'agit d'examiner la compatibilité des régulations partielles et leur aptitude à générer et piloter un nouveau régime d'accumulation qui soit en rupture avec le régime rentier. L'étude conclut que, paradoxalement, seule l'implication du politique, et donc de l'Etat, est à même de permettre la définition d'un arrangement institutionnel favorable à l'accomplissement d'une telle rupture.

<p>Syftet med undersökningen var att med hjälp av lämpliga statistiska metoder testa det så kallade ”Första petropolitiska lagen” med vilket menas en negativ korrelation mellan priset på råolja och graden av friheten hos petropolitiska länder. Med stöd av ett lämplig teoretisk referensram och diskussion över de kausala mekanismerna, har en hypotes över sambandet tagits fram. Trettio tre petropolitiska stater har identifierats vilket omfattar hela populationen. Demokratiska friheter och priset på råolja har definierats och omvandlats till en kvantifierbar form och sedan testats statistiskt. Samtliga variabler har kodats i form av tidsserieobservationer och en paneldata har konstruerats innehållande totalt 939 årliga observationer för de trettio tre petropolitiska länder. Den aggregerade sambandet över hela populationen har testats med en OLE regressionsanalys med så kallad ”first-order” autokorrelation med panelspecifika standardavvikelser. Den första petropolitiska lagen har även testats individuellt för varje petropolitisk land som ingick i urvalet. Erhållen resultat från aggregerat regressionsanalys tyder på att det föreligger ett svagt, med 95 % statistiskt signifikant, positiv samband mellan den beroende och den oberoende variabeln. När sambandet testades enskilt för varje land, har endast 16 av 33 länder fått signifikanta korrelationsnivåer. Fem av länder visade en negativ samband medan elva länder visade en positiv samband mellan beroende och oberoende variabler. Hypotesen har därmed kunnat falsifieras. Förklaringsgraden, samt autokorrelationsproblem tyder dock på att en mer omfattande analys krävs för att kunna säkerställa erhållna resultat.</p> / <p>The purpose of this study was to, with proper statistical methods, investigate so called ”The First Law of Petropolitics”. The First Law of Petropolitics postulates that there exists a negative correlation between price of oil and pace of freedom in the oil-rich petrolist states. A hypothesis has been formulated based on appropriate theoretical references and a discussion about its causal mechanisms. Thirty three petropolist states have been identified which comprises the whole population. The pace of freedom and the price of oil has been defined and transformed into a quantifiable measure and tested statistically. Variables were coded into a time-series panel-data form which included 939 annual observations for those thirty three petrolist states. The aggregated correlation between dependent and independent variables has been tested with an OLE regression analysis with so called “first-order autocorrelation with panel-specific standard errors”. The first law of petropolitics also has been individually tested for each petrolist state. The results from the aggregate regression suggest that there exists a weak, with 95 % statistically significant, positive correlation between a dependent and an independent variables. When each petrolist state has been regressed individually the results showed that only 16 of 33 states had significant levels of correlation. Five of those states had a negative correlation, while other eleven states had a positive correlation. The hypothesis has therefore been falsified. The low R2 –value obtained in both tests and autocorrelation problems suggest that a further investigation of the First Law of Petropolitics is necessary in order to secure the obtained results.</p>

Vor 50 Jahren löste sich Algerien nach langem Kampf endgültig aus dem französischen Kolonialreich. Die anschließend durchgeführten Wirtschaftsreformen konnten das Land aber nicht befrieden, weil sie keine effektive Nutzung der Rente verwirklichten. Bis heute ist die Wirtschaft des Landes wenig diversifiziert und stark von Erdöleinnahmen abhängig. Ist eine exportorientierte Industrialisierung als Lösung der Probleme denkbar?