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| Title: | Resource Revenues and Political Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Congo Republic in Comparative Perspective |
| Author: | Clark, John F. |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Periodical: | Afrika Spectrum |
| Volume: | 37 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 25-41 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Congo (Republic of) |
| Subjects: | democracy economic conditions petroleum Politics and Government Economics and Trade Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the substantial oil wealth of the Congo Republic (Brazzaville) has, paradoxically, been an impediment rather than a boon to the country's political development. The unexpected hazard of possessing such a valuable natural resource became evident after Congo began experimenting with a multiparty political system in 1991. Before the democratic experiment began, petroleum revenues had served to create a society ill-suited for the development of democratic institutions. Oil revenues made the Congolese psychologically dependent on the State, caused excessive urbanization, and created unrealistic expectations in the population. During the years in which Congo tried to consolidate the multiparty system (1992-1997), the petroleum-based economy did little to facilitate the process and much to undermine it. The case of Congo contrasts particularly with that of Benin, a country that shares with Congo a history of French colonialism, a large intelligentsia, and postcolonial experiences with military marxist regimes, but not the petroleum endowment. Benin, however, has gone some way in consolidating its new democratic institutions. Accordingly, the Congo case suggests that countries with substantial natural resource endowments will face special problems of democratic consolidation, even when they enjoy higher levels of development. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English, French and German. |
