Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107).

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rhodes, Anton
Other Authors: Mattes, Robert
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Studies 2014
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613213997137920
access_status_str Open Access
author Rhodes, Anton
author2 Mattes, Robert
author_browse Mattes, Robert
Rhodes, Anton
author_facet Mattes, Robert
Rhodes, Anton
author_sort Rhodes, Anton
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107).
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9000
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:34.479Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Political Studies
publisherStr Department of Political Studies
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9000 Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa Rhodes, Anton Mattes, Robert International Relations Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-107). There has been as yet no empirical study that has undertaken to identify how Sub-Saharan African (SSA) states have allocated the wealth generated from the 21st century oil boom. The answer to this question may well determine whether Africa has any prospect of sustainable resource led development in the near future. This work is an empirical study into how oil states have allocated their wealth in the modern era, and whether there has been a divergence from the past. The main goal is to revise the common view (based as it is on the experiences of the 1970's and early 1980's) that increased levels of oil wealth serve only to undermine the prospect of long term economic growth within developing countries. I argue that improvements in the political environment have increased the possibility that the 21st century price rise has been used more productively than was the case thirty years ago. Thus the focus of this paper is to identify how oil states have improved their use of oil wealth in the recent era, and the factors that have brought this about. To achieve this end, I have created a set of variables that identifies the amount of oil wealth that has accrued to African governments (during the 21st century price rise) and the areas in which these funds have been allocated. I have also measured levels of political and social freedom to determine whether the political environment is one that has improved from the previous price hike period. My empirical findings display two clear results. Firstly, the political environment has improved significantly from the previous era, and secondly, the pattern of resource allocation has changed dramatically, to one that holds out a much greater prospect of positive long term economic growth. Based upon these results, it appears that SSA oil states have broken away from the negative effects associated with the resource curse and the previous oil bonanza. 2014-10-31T17:59:07Z 2014-10-31T17:59:07Z 2009 Master Thesis Masters MSocSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9000 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle International Relations
Rhodes, Anton
Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_fullStr Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_full_unstemmed Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_short Africa's recent oil boom : are the same mistakes being made again? Investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in Sub-Saharan Africa
title_sort africa s recent oil boom are the same mistakes being made again investigating the effect of the recent surge in oil prices upon the prospects of long term development in sub saharan africa
topic International Relations
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9000
work_keys_str_mv AT rhodesanton africasrecentoilboomarethesamemistakesbeingmadeagaininvestigatingtheeffectoftherecentsurgeinoilpricesupontheprospectsoflongtermdevelopmentinsubsaharanafrica