CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Seidimbek, Ayana |
|---|---|
| Title | PETROLEUM POLITICS, THE MANAGEMENT AND CURSE OF RESOURCES IN CENTRAL ASIA: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in Comparative Perspective |
| Summary | Why does the resource curse affect some mineral-rich states but not all? While its likelihood to paradoxically produce an array of negative outcomes such as unbalanced economic growth, authoritarianism and impoverished populations in developing states is well-documented, it remains unclear why it only appears to befall some, but not all states. Two otherwise similar mineral-rich, newly independent Central Asian states Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan present an opportunity to study this puzzle as they have developed in diverging trajectories along the resource curse path after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. While Turkmenistan is notorious for its classical rentier state with the worst development/poverty indicators in the region, Kazakhstan improved its business environment, fiscal sector and Human Development Index indicators. In answering this puzzle the paper develops the rentier state model that lies at the heart of the resource curse mechanisms and outcomes, followed by an integrative case study based on this model. The main findings suggest that the difficulty of extraction factor characteristic of Kazakh oil fields has led the government to abandon its command economy (in contrast to Turkmenistan) and rely heavily on foreign investment and technology. Large-scale foreign privatization of the petroleum sector has led to a series of legislative, fiscal and expenditure reforms that continue to hinder the formation of a classical rentier state. The thesis also concludes that private ownership structure – and its observed positive impact – might help institutionalize reforms and better manage resource wealth in other mineral-rich developing states. |
| Supervisor | CARSTEN Q. SCHNEIDER |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/seidimbek_ayana.pdf |
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