Osman Nuri ARAS, Elçin SÜLEYMANOV, Ayaz ZEYNALOV

DOES OIL INCOME IMPEDE DEMOCRATIZATION IN MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRIES?

Several recent studies point to the conclusions that there exists a strong relationship between democracy and the level of income. However, if income is coming from countries’ oil wealth, there is an exception to this claim; the positive effect of income in democracy is not observed. This paper argues that because of the oil income, Muslim – majority countries have not recorded significant democratization in their governments. Indeed, this paper shows the main mechanisms how oil income tends to lower the level of economic development in Muslim – majority countries, which prosperity positively relates to the level of democratization in these countries. The lack of democratization on these countries is explained by the low level of development due to “natural resource curse”

Keywords:

Oil Income, Muslim-majority countries, Democratization,

PDF

___

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., Robinson, J.A. & Yared, P. (2008), “Income and Democracy”, American Economic Review, 98(3), 808–842.
Aslaksen, S. (2010), “Oil and Democracy: More Than a Cross-Country
Correlation?”, Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, 47(4), –431. Barro, R. J. (1999), “Determinants of Democracy”, Journal of Political Economy, (6), 158–183.
CIA, (2011), The World Factbook 2011, Country Comparison: Oil - Proved Reserves.
Collier, P. & Hoeffler, A. (2004), “Greed and Grievance in Civil War”, Oxford
Economic Papers, 56(4), 563–595. Diamond, L. (2010), “Why Are There No Arab Democracies?”, Journal of Democracy, 21(1), 93-112.
Freedom House, (2011), Combined Average Ratings – Independent Countries
(http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=25&year=2011)
Inglehart, R. & Norris, P. (2001), “Cultural Obstacles to Equal Representation”,
Journal of Democracy, 12 (3), 126-140. Leite, C. & Weidmann, J. (1999), Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural
Resources, Corruption, and Economic Growth, IMF Working Paper, 99, 85-102. Oskarsson, S. & Ottosen, E. (2010), “Does Oil Still Hinder Democracy?”, The Journal of Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, 46(6), 1067-1083.
Ross, M., L. (2001), Does Oil Hinder Democracy? , World Politics, 53(3), 325
Rowley, C. & Smith, N. (2009), Islam's Democracy Paradox: Muslims Claim to
Like Democracy, So Why Do They Have So Little?, Public Choice, 139(3), 273- Sachs, J. & Warner, A. (1995), Natural Resource Abundance and Economic
Growth, NBER Working Paper 5398.
Sala-i-Martin, X. & Subramanian, A. (2003), Addressing the Natural Resource
Curse: An Illustration from Nigeria, NBER Working Paper 9804.
Stepan, A.C. & Robertson, G.B. (2003), “An ‘Arab’ More Than a ‘Muslim’
Democracy Gap”, Journal of Democracy, 14(3), 30–44. Terry K.L. (2007), Oil-Led Development: Social, Political, and Economic
Consequences, CDDRL Working Papers.