Springer Oil, Institutions and Sustainability in MENA: A Radical Approach through the Empowerment of Citizens

This book addresses the factors that have led to the lackluster economic performance of the oil MENA region, despite the wealth of its vast natural resource. It offers a radical policy recommendation as a way out. Using data from a wide variety of sources, it analyzes the major problems that confront the governments of the MENA region, and make the case why the status quo is unsustainable. Recently, Algeria has shown that people will tire of the status quo and will demand wholesale changes. At the core of the problem of corruption, rent seeking, waste, and lack of economic diversification, is the presence of oil and its control by the state. But oil by itself should help, not hinder MENA’s economic development. While historically, oil revenues may have contributed to the maintenance of corrupt institutions and rent seeking among oil-rich nations, the mere presence of such valuable natural resources need not be the problem. It argues for a plan to empower citizens and invert the power relationship, so that the citizen’s voices matter. For the spirit of the Arab Spring to be successful, the region must adopt significant institutional changes that embrace the rule of law, transparency, democratic accountability, and the protection of human and private rights. From the Back Cover This book addresses the factors that have led to the lackluster economic performance of the oil MENA region, despite the wealth of its vast natural resource. It offers a radical policy recommendation as a way out. Using data from a wide variety of sources, it analyzes the major problems that confront the governments of the MENA region, and make the case why the status quo is unsustainable. Recently, Algeria has shown that people will tire of the status quo and will demand wholesale changes. At the core of the problem of corruption, rent seeking, waste, and lack of economic diversification, is the presence of oil and its control by the state. But oil by itself should help, not hinder MENA’s economic development. While historically, oil revenues may have contributed to the maintenance of corrupt institutions and rent seeking among oil-rich nations, the mere presence of such valuable natural resources need not be the problem. It argues for a plan to empower citizens and invert the power relationship, so that the citizen’s voices matter. For the spirit of the Arab Spring to be successful, the region must adopt significant institutional changes that embrace the rule of law, transparency, democratic accountability, and the protection of human and private rights. About the Author Mohammed Akacem teaches economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of research interests and teaching are Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa as well as the Geopolitics and Economics of World Oil Markets. In addition to teaching, Professor Akacem has published his research in refereed and policy journals such as the Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Policy, Review of Islamic Economics, The Journal of Private Enterprise, OPEC Review and the Journal of Energy and Development. Dennis Dixon Miller holds the Buckhorn Endowed Chair in Economics at Baldwin Wallace University. While in graduate school he took a break to teach at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, 1982-84, and worked at both the Center for Energy and Economic Development and the Behavioral Science Institute at the University of Colorado where he earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1985. His teaching and research interests include environmental and natural resource economics and economic development. He has one honorary doctorate. He received a research scholarship at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University in 1986. He has received two year-long Fulbright Teaching Fellowships, both in Ukraine. John Leonard Faulkner graduated with a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado in 1984. He also