Document Type : مقالات پژوهشی

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Political Sciences, University of Ardakan, Ardakan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Economics, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz,, Ahvaz,, Iran

Abstract

Extended Abstract
Introduction
One of the most important concerns of political and social thinkers over the centuries has been the determinants of political stability. A society is considered to be fully developed and stable when, in addition to economic development, it is also developed in the social and political fields, enabling citizens to evolve in a harmonious way. By using revenues from the abundance of natural resources, rentier governments can overcome challenges such as low economic growth, poverty and accountability, corruption and the lack of the rule of law, and ensure their political stability. On the other hand, good governance is an important factor in the economic and social development of countries and its promotion leads to more open and democratic societies. Given these issues, the main question of the present study is what effect does the interaction of good governance and the rentier government have on the political instability of OPEC member countries? This article argues that revenues from energy exports and good governance can bring political stability to OPEC member countries.

Theoretical frame work
The rentier government curses the resources and the impact of rents on social, economic, and political life in resource-rich countries. To analyze this issue, Michael Ross (Ross, 2001) provides a framework which argues that the effects of the rentier government can be classified into three groups: 1) The effect of rentier: Based on Ross's argument, this can be claimed that resource-rich governments tend to use rents to reduce social pressure and in this way they gain more independence from the public (Ross, 2001: 329). He also stated that the behavior of the rentier government can be explained in three ways: A) The effect of taxation b) The effect of cost c) The effect of group formation. 2) The effect of repression: rent revenues allow governments to do this to strengthen its power and thwart democratic aspirations, spend more on internal security. In addition, supporting resource extraction is crucial for rentier governments, so investment in security apparatus is likely to be made to protect these resources.
Richard Auty was the first researcher to introduce the "resource curse" theory. This theory states that based on new evidence not only many resource-rich developing countries do not enjoy the benefits; They may, in fact, perform worse than less gifted countries (Auty, 1993: 77-78). In addition, the research of Sachs and Warner On analyzing the economic performance of resource-rich countries during the years 1970-1989, It paved the way for a dramatic increase in resource curse studies. As a result, their study showed that there is a causal relationship between the intensity of natural resources and economic growth (Sachs & Warner, 1995: 6398).

Methodology
The hypothetical test method in the present study is the dynamic panel data method (GMM) during the period 2010 to 2018. In this study, six components of Control of Corruption, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, Voice and Accountability, and Political instability/No Violence & Terorism have been used as indicators of good governance and with oil (rent) revenues on the political instability index has been examined separately. Research data gathered from the Institute for Political Risk Services and World Bank data (WDI 2020) for OPEC countries. In addition to checking for the lack of colinearity between the independent variables entered in the model, tests related to normal residuals, homogeneity of variances, the independence of the residuals and the absence of model specification error (linearity of the model) were also performed.

Results & Discussion
According to the coefficient of determination indicates a good fit of the pattern and the variables used in it show the explanatory power of the model by 63%, which is a good number considering that the method used is panel data. Durbin Watson's statistic also shows no autocorrelation and shows the number 1.8. The F-statistic in this fit also denies that the coefficients are zero. The sign of coefficients is all presented in accordance with theory and theoretical foundations. The j-statistic statistic is the same as the Sargan statistic used to test the correlation between residuals and instrumental variables. The findings of this study show that the effect of the rentier state variable on the political instability index of OPEC countries is positive and significant, and the effect of accountability indicators, government efficiency, corruption control, rule of law and no-violence as indicators of good governance in OPEC countries are negative and significant on the political instability index.

Conclusions & Suggestions
According to Ross, the legitimacy of rulers through rent instead of free elections causes So that rentier governments can invest more of their revenue in sponsor networks to prevent the emergence of democratic demands of citizens. Ross believes that rentier governments tend to form follow-up support groups to prevent the formation of social groups independent of the government. In other words, opposition to the status quo or independent social groups is likely to be suppressed by governments, because they are seen as a threat to the existence of their governments that this leads to the political instability of the regime. Interactive effects of the three indicators of accountability, corruption control and the rule of law along with the rentier state on the political instability index of OPEC countries is negative and significant.

Keywords

Almaz, A. (2015). Testing the Rentier State Theory: The Case of Azerbaijan. Journal of Global Analysis, 5.
[2]  Auty, R. M. (1993). Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The resource curse thesis. London: Routledge.
[3]  Auty, R. M. (2001). The political economy of resource-driven growth. European economic review, 45(4-6), 839-846.
[4]   Beblawi, H. (1990). The rentier state in the Arab world. Arab Studies Quarterly. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[5]   Beblawi, H., & Luciani, G. (Eds.). (1987). the rentier state. London, Croom Helm.
[6]  Billon, P. L. (2005). The Geopolitics of Resource Wars: Resource Dependence. Governance and Violence. London: Frank Cass.
[7]  Caselli, F., & Tesei, A. (2016). Resource windfalls, political regimes, and political stability. Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(3), 573-590.
[8]  Chaudhry, K. A. (1994). Economic liberalization and the lineages of the rentier state. Comparative Politics, 1-25.
[9]  Davis, T. J. (2017). Good governance as a foundation for sustainable human development in sub-Saharan Africa. Third World Quarterly, 38(3), 636-654.
[10]  Dowding, K. M., & Kimber, R. (1983). The meaning and use of ‘political stability’. European Journal of Political Research, 11(3), 229-243.
[11]  Dower, A. (2000). Good Governance: Guiding Principle for Implementation. Australia, Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
[12]  Duero, A. (2009). The Iranian Rentier State:: Rentierism, Political Stability and Economic Development in Iran. VDM Verlag.
[13]  Engel, J. R., Westra, L., & Bosselmann, K. (Eds.). (2009). Democracy, Ecological Integrity and International Law. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
[14]  Fearon, J. D. (2005). Primary commodity exports and civil war. Journal of conflict Resolution, 49(4), 483-507.
[15]  Goldsmith, A. A. (1987). Does political stability hinder economic development? Mancur Olson's theory and the Third World. Comparative Politics, 19(4), 471-480.
[16]  Graham, J., Plumptre, T. W., & Amos, B. (2003). Principles for good governance in the 21st century. Ottawa: Institute on governance.
[17]   Gurr, T. R. (1974). Persistence and change in political systems, 1800-1971. The American Political Science Review, 68(4), 1482-1504.
[18]  Gyene, P. I. (2016). “Rentier states” or the relationship between regime stability and exercising power in post-Soviet Central Asia. Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe, 38(2), 171-191.
[19]   Herb, M. (2005). No representation without taxation? Rents, development, and democracy. Comparative Politics,37(3): 297-316.
[20]  Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A., & Mastruzzi, M. (2004). Governance matters III: Governance indicators for 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. The World Bank Economic Review, 18(2), 253–387.
[21]  Kuru, A. (2008). The Rentier State Model and Central Asian Studies: The Turkmen Case. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 7(1).
[22]  Lockwood, M., Davidson, J., Curtis, A., Stratford, E., & Griffith, R. (2010). Governance principles for natural resource management. Society and natural resources, 23(10), 986-1001.
[23]  Luciani, G. (1990). Allocation vs. production states: A theoretical framework. The Arab State, 65-84.
[24]  Makvandi, F., Zare, H., Jalili Ghasem Agha, O. (2019). Citizen Perception of Political Stability and Political Displacement Indicators in Good Governance based on Native Components of Iranian Urban Utilities Organizations (Case Study: Governmental Organizations of Khuzestan Province), Journal of Organizational Culture Management, 16(4): 927-950. (In Persian)
[25]  Meissner, H. (2010). The resource curse and rentier states in the Caspian region: A need for context analysis. Germany: German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
[26]  Mirebeigi, S.V. (2016). A comparative study of the relationship between Rentierism and good governance pattern; Study of six countries: Iran, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey, Journal of Social sciences, 23(73): 117-170. (In Persian)
[27]  Moeinifard, M & Mehrara, M. (2015). Effect of Abundance of Natural Resources on Governance Guality in Developing Countries, Journal of Economic Development Policy, 3(4): 9-32. (In Persian)
[28]  Mohseni Zonouzi, S.J., Shahbazi, K., Parnak, R. (2015). The Effects of Oil Revenues on Good Governance Indicator in Selected OPEC Member Countries, Journal of Economic Development Policy, 2(4): 117-156. (In Persian)
[29]  Nir, A. E., & Kafle, B. S. (2013). The effect of political stability on public education quality. The International Journal of Educational Management, 27(2), 110-126.
[30]  Oni, S., & Excellence-Oluye, N. (2019). Leadership and Good Governance: The Nigerian Experience. LASU Journal of Public Administration and Management, 1(1), 112-129.
[31]  Pelizzo, R. (2020). Good Governance and Party System Change. Politics & Policy, 48(2), 265-287.
[32]  Pomeranz, E. F., & Stedman, R. C. (2020). Measuring good governance: piloting an instrument for evaluating good governance principles. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 22(3), 428-440.
[33]  Ross, M. L. (2001). Does oil hinder democracy? World politics, 325-361.
[34]  Rosser, A. (2006). The political economy of the resource curse: A literature survey. Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex.
[35]   Sachs, J. D., & Warner, A. M. (1995). Natural resource abundance and economic growth (No. w5398). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
[36]  Sheng, Y. K. (2009). What is good governance? United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Date unknown.
[37]  Stoker, G. (1998). Governance as theory: five propositions. International social science journal, 50(155), 17-28.
[38]  Unescape (2008). Poverty and Development Division Good Governance, UN Web Site Locator.
Van der Waldt, G. (2012). Measuring the goodness of governance: Macro, intermediate and micro perspectives. African Journal of Public Affairs, 5(1): 83-96].
[39]  Van Doeveren, V. (2011). Rethinking good governance: Identifying common principles. Public Integrity, 13(4), 301-318.
[40]  Venâncio de Vasconcelos, M. (2020). Political Stability and Bank Flows: New Evidence. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 13(3), 56.
[41]  Young, E. W. (2020). Theorizing the Influence of Wartime Legacies on Political Stability after Rebel Victories. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-25.
[42]  Zarghani, S.H., Azami, H., Ahmadi, R. (2014). Investigation and Recognition of Variables Affecting Political System’s Instability, Journal of International Quarterly of Geopolitics, 10(35): 76-94. (In Persian)
CAPTCHA Image