Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This work conducts a comparative analysis on how diamonds and petroleum may produce different outcomes in relation to the resource curse. Much of the extant literature seeks to uncover why certain states experience the resource curse while others do not, ignoring vast variations among resource curse states. This work, however, is more interested in decoupling the differences among resource curse states rather than identifying why some states fall into this trap. It hypothesizes that different resources lead not only to different outcomes among resource curse states, but in fact lead to different resource curses. Many analyses of the resource curse treat resources only as important as the revenue they generate, ignoring the unique material and social qualities these resources possess. This work considers revenues salient factors in determining differences among resource curse states without ignoring how resources’ intrinsic qualities influence political and civil outcomes. Six hypotheses will be tested to evaluate competing resource curse explanations for adverse outcomes. By analyzing thirty-four resource curse states, buttressed with qualitative cases in Venezuela, Angola, and Sierra Leone, I wish to establish causal linkages between resources and resource curses.