The Political Economy of Oil States: Venezuela Compared As of April 13, Political Science 17, Spring 2006 Clark House 202

Transcription

1 The Political Economy of Oil States: Venezuela Compared As of April 13, 2006 Amherst College Prof. Javier Corrales Political Science 17, Spring 2006 Clark House 202 Tue and Thu 8:30am+ x2164 Course website: blackboard.amherst.edu Office Hrs: Tue 3:30 4:30pm and Wed 2:30 3:30pm Course Description The course is divided in two parts. The first surveys the political economy of lower income countries in general. Questions will cover a broad terrain. What are the key characteristics of poor economies? Why did these countries fail to catch up with the West in the 20 th century? Who are the key political actors? What are their beliefs, ideologies and motivations? What are their political constraints, both locally, nationally and globally? We will review arguments about the causes of wealth and poverty of nations, the role of ideas, positive and dysfunctional links between the state and business groups, the role of non state actors, the causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, corruption, and the impact of financial globalization and trade opening. We will also look at the connection between regime type and development (are democracies at a disadvantage in promoting development?). The second part focuses on the political economy of oil. To what extent is oil a resource curse, the neo structuralist notion that an abundance of a natural resource, in this case oil, is detrimental for development because it distorts economic incentives (away from diversification) and distorts politics (by facilitating corruption, raising the stakes of power holding, increasing the chance for abuse of state power, and weakening society s capacity to hold the state accountable). We will examine these questions by looking at Venezuela, one of the world s leading oil producers. Until the 1980s, Venezuela was considered an example of democratization. In the 1990s, Venezuela became instead a paradigmatic case of policy incoherence. In the early 2000s, under the Hugo Chávez administration, Venezuela has become a case of political polarization, and some argue, rising authoritarianism. We will assess whether the resource curse theory provides the best account of Venezuela s politics since the 1980s. To address this question, we will: 1) compare the resource curse argument with other competing theories of development that might account for Venezuelan politics; and 2) compare the Venezuelan case with other cases in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. This course fulfills requirements for the Five College Certificates in Latin American Studies and International Relations. Course Requirements Attendance: All students are required to come to class having completed the readings for that class meeting. Class attendance is mandatory. I will only allow one absence per semester. Additional absences will lower significantly your participation grade.

2 2 Participation: Class participation will count 15 percent of your grade. Attendance is not the same as participation. The latter is the extent to which you make a qualitative contribution to the discussion in progress. It entails addressing the issues raised by me and your classmates, as well as raising your own issues, when relevant. I will never call on you to participate; it is ultimately your responsibility to be heard in class. The point is not to speak for the sake of speaking (or to impress me), but rather to contribute to the conversation with a different or a supplementary perspective. Lead Discussants: At the beginning of the semester, you will be assigned to one of five groups of lead discussants. On designated class meetings, lead discussants will be expected to participate more actively and be better prepared than the rest of the class. The list of assignments indicates what days each group is expected to take the lead. Each lead discussant will submit a 1 to 2 page discussion paper, due by 8pm the night before you are scheduled to serve as lead discussant. These papers should be based on the readings assigned for the day that you submit your paper. These are not just summary papers. You should try instead to compare causal arguments offered by different authors or apply causal arguments to cases, or even better, to identify shortcomings in the arguments. I will read the papers before class and use them to prepare discussions. The papers will not be graded in the conventional way (you will get a check plus, check, or check minus), but they will be part of your participation grade. Papers: All students are required to write four 5 page papers. I will only grade three of those papers: the first two and either paper 3 or 4. You will decide at the end of the course which paper (3 or 4) you would like me to grade. Topics for all papers will be distributed at least one week prior to the due date. Papers will be based on class material; no outside research is necessary. Readings This is a heavy reading course. You should be prepared to read approximately pages per class meeting. Most readings are contained in a multilith, available for purchase from the Political Science Department during normal business hours. Please contact Ms. Victoria Farrington, Assistant to the Chair (vmfarrington@amherst.edu). In addition, the following books are required; they are available for purchase at Jeffrey Amherst Bookshop, 26 S. Prospect Street, , Corrales, Javier Presidents Without Parties. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press. Easterly, William The Elusive Quest for Growth. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Goddard, C. Roe, Patrick Cronin and Kishore C. Dash, eds International Political Economy: State Market Relations in a Changing Global Order, 2 nd Ed., Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. McCoy, Jennifer L. and David J. Myers, eds The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

3 3 My Participation One objective of class discussion is to allow me to respond to your own comments. I want to make everyone feel comfortable participating. But at the same time, I must correct comments for factual errors or faulty logic, and sometimes challenge them. Please do not take offense by my corrections, or be discouraged to participate in fear of being corrected. I do not expect your comments to be perfect. I simply expect you to be engaged. In assessing participation grade, I look for relevance, not necessarily accuracy. Academic Conduct Plagiarism of any kind is strictly forbidden. Recently, there has been a surge in plagiarism at Amherst and other colleges. We are on alert. Remember, you are expected to discuss (not restate) the ideas of other authors. There is no need to do outside reading for this class, but you still want to make sure that you are clear about the ideas that are yours and those that belong to others. When in doubt, indicate sources. You are strongly advised to read about plagiarism at Amherst on line: Etiquette: Please arrive punctually, but if you need to arrive late, that s better than simply not showing up. Do not sleep or chat with your neighbors. Raise your hand and wait for your turn to speak. Do not interrupt others, but feel free to interrupt me if I seem to be moving on to a new topic and you are not ready to move on. If you need to leave early, please let me know before the beginning of class. Extensions My policy is simple: no extensions will be granted, except in extreme circumstances. Late papers will be marked down.

4 4 List of Assignments (P) = Book for Purchase Class meeting Tue Jan 31 Reading Assignment Introduction: It s all about growth, growth and? Work due Section 1: Survey of Thought on Development Thu Feb 2 G 1 Tue Feb 7 G 2 Thu Feb 9 G 3 Tue Feb 14 G 4 Growth and Happiness (P) Gilpin, Robert. The Nature of Political Economy. In Goddard et al., pp (P) Easterly, Chapter 1, pp Friedman, Benjamin M The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. Society (January/February): The Economist The mountain man and the surgeon (December 20), hand out. Development Today and in 2015 UNDP Human Development Report 2003, pp Modernization Theory UNDP Human Development Report 2003, pp Lipset, Seymour Martin Political Man. The Social Bases of Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, pp Gerchenkron, Alexander Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. The Belknap Press, pp Challenges to Mod. Theory (from the left and the right) Huntington, Samuel J Political Order in Changing Societies. Yale University Press, pp. 1 8, 32 39, (P) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. 1867/1848. Excerpts from Capital and the Communist Manifesto. In Goddard et al., (P) Dos Santos, Theotonio The Structure of Dependence in Goddard et al., (P) Amin, Samir The Future of Global Polarization. In Goddard et al., (P) Went, Robert Globalization Under Fire. In Goddard et al., pp Challenges to Dependency Theory World Bank The East Asian Miracle. Summary. A World Bank Policy Research Report. Washington, D.C. The World Bank, pp Krueger, Anne O Government Failures in Development. Journal of Economic Perspectives 4, 3, Summer, pp Firebaugh, Glenn Growth Effects of Foreign and Domestic Investment. American Journal of Sociology 98, 1, pp Larraín, Felipe, et al., Intel: A Case Study of Foreign Direct Investment in Central America, Cambridge, MA: Center for

5 5 Thu Feb 16 Tue Feb 21 G 1 International Development Working Paper No. 58, Harvard University. The Washington Consensus Bierkester, Thomas J The Triumph of Liberal Ideas in the Developing World. in Barbara Stallings, ed. Global Change, Regional Responses. Cambridge University Press, pp (P) Corrales, Javier Presidents Without Parties, pp Rebuttal 1: Revisiting Globalization Hirst, Paul and Grahame Thompson The Limits to Economic Globalization. In Held and McGrew, eds. The Global Transformation Reader. Second Edition, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, pp Stallings, Barbara Globalization and Liberalization: The Impact on Developing Countries. In Atul Kohli, et al., eds., States, Markets and Just Growth. New York: The United Nations Press, pp Wade Robert vs. Martin Wolf Are Global Poverty and Inequality Getting Worse? In David Held and Anthony McGrew, eds. The Global Transformation Reader. Second Edition, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, pp Chua, Amy Markets, Democracy and Ethnicity. In Sunder Ramaswamy and Jeffrey W. Cason, eds., Development and Democracy. Middlebury College Press, pp Part 2: Political Determinants of Development Recent Theories Thu Feb 23 G 2 Tue Feb 28 G 3 Thu Mar 2 G 4 Rebuttal 2: Is it the state? (P) Evans, Peter. States and Industrial Transformation. In Goddard, pp Stiglitz, Joseph Some Lessons from the East Asian Miracle. World Bank Research Observer 2 (August): (P) Lindsey, Brink. The Invisible Hand vs. the Dead Hand. In Goddard, pp (P) Easterly, Chapter 10. Rebuttal 3: Is it the regime?: Does Democracy foster development; does development foster democracy? Olson, Mancur Power and Prosperity. Basic Books, pp Sen, Amartya Freedoms and Needs. The New Republic, Nos. 2 and 3 (January): Przeworski, Adam, Michael E. Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well Being in the World, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp , , Regime factors cont d: Haggard, Stephan The Political Economy of the Asian Crisis. Journal of Democracy 11, 2 (April): Easterly, Chapter 12. Fri Feb 24 Paper 1

6 6 Tue Mar 7 Thu Mar 9 G 1 Tue Mar 14 Rebuttal 4: Is it Institutions? World Bank Building Institutions for Markets. World Development Report pp North, Douglass, William Summerhill and Barry R. Weingast Order, Disorder, and Economic Change: Latin America versus North America. In Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Hilton L. Root, eds. Governing for Prosperity, Yale University Press, pp Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson An African Success Story: Botswana. In Dani Rodrik, ed., In Search of Prosperity. Princeton University Press, pp More on Institutions and Development Acemoglu, Daron Root Cause: A Historical Approach to Assessing the Role of Institutions in Economic Development. Finance & Development 40, 2 (June). Przeworski, Adam Some Historical, Theoretical, and Methodological Issues in Identifying Effects of Political Institutions (mimeo). Catching Up (P) Easterly, Chapter 11, 4, and 6. Part 3: The Resource Curse: Venezuela Compared Thu Mar 16 G 2 Mar 21/23 Mar 28 Thu Mar 30 G 3 Tue Apr 4 G 4 The Resource Curse Karl, Terry Lynn The Paradox of Plenty. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp Schwartz, Nelson Crude Realities: Living with Mr. Chávez; Oil s New Mr. Big. Fortune Magazine (September 19). Guillermoprieto, Alma Don t Cry for Me, Venezuela and The Gambler, The New York Review of Books 52, 15 and 16 (October 6 and 20). Spring Break In class movie: Chávez, Venezuela and the New Latin America. The Resource Curse: How much can structure explain politics? Karl (1997), pp , Moore, Mick (with Jennifer Leavy and Howard White). Polity Qualities: How Governance Affects Poverty. In Peter P. Houtzager and Mick Moore, eds., Changing paths : international development and the new politics of inclusion. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Latin American Populism, with or without oil (Ven and Arg) Dahl, Robert A Polyarchy. Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp Wynia, Gary W The Politics of Latin American Development, 3 rd ed., New York: Cambridge University Press, pp (P) Corrales, Javier Presidents Without Parties. Penn State Fri Mar 17 Paper 2

7 7 Thu Apr 6 Tue Apr 11 G 1 Thu Apr 13 G 2 Tue Apr 18 G 3 Thu Apr 20 Tue Apr 25 G 4 University Press, pp The Rise of Democracy: Venezuela vs. Mexico in the 1960s/70s Karl, 1997, pp Cornelius, Wayne Mexican Politics in Transition. The Breakdown of a One Party Dominant Regime. San Diego: Center for U.S. Mexican Studies, University of California, pp , 25 44, Explaining the Decay of the Punto Fijo Regime: Oil or Parties? Norden, Deborah Party Relations and Democracy in Latin America. Party Politics 4, 4: (P) Corrales, Javier Presidents Without Parties, pp. 1 36, 44 45, , , Venezuela today: Participatory Democracy or Competitive Authoritarianism Revisit Dahl. Levitsky, Steven and Lucan Way The Rise of Competitive Authoritarian. Journal of Democracy (P) Canache, Damarys Urban Poor and Political Order. In McCoy and Myers, pp (P) Molina, José E The Unraveling of Venezuela s Party System, In McCoy y Myers, pp (P) Trinkunas, Harold A The Military: From Marginalization to Center Stage. In McCoy and Myers, pp Chávez, Populism, and Oil Bernard Mommer Subversive Oil. In Steve Ellner and Daniel Hellinger, eds., Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. Penfold, Michael Social Funds (mimeo) NO CLASS, but do read: Anti neoliberalism today in Venezuela and Latin America Chávez, Populism Weyland, Kurt Clarifying a Contested Concept, Comparative Politics, Vol 34, Issue 1 Hawkins, Kirk A. and David R. Hansen Dependent Civil Society: The Círculos Bolivarianos in Venezuela. Latin American Research Review 41, 1: (P) Ortiz, Nelson Entrepreneurs: Profits without Power? In McCoy y Myers, pp (P) Kelly, Janet y Pedro Palma The Syndrome of Economic Decline and the Quest for Change. In McCoy y Myers, pp (P) Gil Yepes, José Antonio Public Opinion, Political Socialization, and Regime Stabilization. In McCoy and Myers, pp Guest Lecturer Prof. Patricia Márquez, Harvard Business School and IESA, Caracas Mon Apr 10: Lecture by Amb. Rocha, 4pm Wed Apr 19 Paper 3

8 8 Thu Apr 27 Tue May 2 Tue May 4 G 1 and 2 Tue May 9 G 3 and 4 Thu May 11 Power Asymmetries and Presidentialism Corrales, Javier Power Asymmetries and Presidentialist Constitutions. (mimeo) Oil Consumption (Inter) Dependence: The United States The New Politics of Energy in Latin America Palacios, Luisa The Petroleum Sector in Latin America (mimeo). Valenzuela, Arturo The United States and Latin America: Security and Energy. Paper presented at the Seventh Conference on U.S. Policy in Latin America, The Aspen Institute, Washington, DC. Readings TBA Oil Consumption (Inter) Dependence (continued) Readings TBA The Resource Curse and Violence: Venezuela, Indonesia, Colombia Collier, Paul The market for civil wars. Foreign Policy, May/June. Arnson, Cynthia, ed The Social and Economic Dimensions of Conflict and Peace in Colombia (articles by Chueca Mora, Gómez Buendía, and Schaerer. Indonesia Case Study. Corrales, Javier In Search of a Theory of Polarization. European Review of Latin American Studies 79 (October). Easterly Chapter 13. Conclusion Clemens and Todd What s wrong with Millennium Goals. Readings TBA. Seniors: Mon May 8 Paper 4 Nonseniors Fri May 12 Paper 4