Publication

This paper introduces an empirical test to gauge the relationship between resource dependence and authoritarianism. The author finds that a one percent increase in resource dependence, as measured by the ratio of primary exports to gross domestic product (GDP), leads to a nearly eight percent increase in the probability of authoritarianism. The key factors that generate authoritarian governments in rentier economies, he concludes, are the lack of transparency and the absence of rules in the process of rent distribution.