 |
Extractive Industries, the State, and Radicalism in Developing Nations: A case study of the oil industry and Egypt and Nigeria Using the Financial Times
| | Unformatted Document Text:
PIP-WP02
2
Extractive Industries, the State, and Radicalism in Developing Nations: A casestudy of the oil industry and Egypt and Nigeria using The Financial Times
Kevin Doran
Introduction
In recent years, the subject of radicalism in the developing world has become a hot topic.In the wake of the September 11
th
attacks, it seems even more important to study why and
how radicalism is able to flourish in the developing nations. The goal of this paper is toadd to the debate on this topic. This study concentrates on extractive industries,specifically oil, in Egypt and Nigeria and the role these industries play in the rise anddecline of radicalism within their nations. Radicalism will be defined as any movementdirectly clashing with the state or major industries. This can range from streetdemonstrations to coordinated militia attacks.
Information regarding the social, economic, and political happenings in each country wasselected obtained by creating a database of any Financial Times article, between the years1982 and 2000, that was relevant to this study. The important aspects of these articleswere then inserted into a timeline for each country, as well as other important social andeconomic indicators obtained for the World Development Indicators and the StandardizedIncome Distribution Database (SIDD). The information taken from the WorldDevelopment Indicators and the SIDD, were compared against those of Ghana andTunisia as an attempt to control for general social and economic indicator trends inAfrica. Only these two countries were selected as controls mainly because they were theonly other African countries with useable data in the SIDD.
In a study such as this, inflation rates will be of specific importance. In Egypt, in the1970's, the price of bread was raised by an amount that the citizens felt was too high.The result was major riots. The threat of similar riots is still alive according to theinformation gathered for this study and thus it seems natural that inflation be one of theindicators examined in this study. One must also give attention to inequality, be thatincome inequality or general social inequality, when discussing the social effects of anindustry. Income inequality has been linked to violent crime in past literature (Hsieh andPugh, 1993) (Kennedy and Kawachi, 1998). One reason that this inequality may causeviolent crime is that it may instill a feeling of desperation of those that it affectsnegatively. These people may feel as though their only option is to use violent crime toenhance their position. This would seem to be especially true if one has tried lawful andpeaceful ways of enhancing his or her position, without success. This could explain someof the violence that has been occurring in the Nigerian oil producing sectors. In addition,if we are trying to discover whether or not the oil extraction is benefiting those who livenear the land on which extraction is occurring, inequality levels seem the best way to doso. Another way to do so is to examine the level of education within the country, as thisis one way that individuals can work themselves out of poverty. In order to do so, thisstudy will examine literacy level in the countries discussed of all adults over the age of15. Although, both being developing nations with strong Muslim influence, it seems
|
|
| |
|
|
PIP-WP02
2
Extractive Industries, the State, and Radicalism in Developing Nations: A case
study of the oil industry and Egypt and Nigeria using The Financial Times
Kevin Doran
Introduction
In recent years, the subject of radicalism in the developing world has become a hot topic.
In the wake of the September 11
th
attacks, it seems even more important to study why and
how radicalism is able to flourish in the developing nations. The goal of this paper is to
add to the debate on this topic. This study concentrates on extractive industries,
specifically oil, in Egypt and Nigeria and the role these industries play in the rise and
decline of radicalism within their nations. Radicalism will be defined as any movement
directly clashing with the state or major industries. This can range from street
demonstrations to coordinated militia attacks.
Information regarding the social, economic, and political happenings in each country was
selected obtained by creating a database of any Financial Times article, between the years
1982 and 2000, that was relevant to this study. The important aspects of these articles
were then inserted into a timeline for each country, as well as other important social and
economic indicators obtained for the World Development Indicators and the Standardized
Income Distribution Database (SIDD). The information taken from the World
Development Indicators and the SIDD, were compared against those of Ghana and
Tunisia as an attempt to control for general social and economic indicator trends in
Africa. Only these two countries were selected as controls mainly because they were the
only other African countries with useable data in the SIDD.
In a study such as this, inflation rates will be of specific importance. In Egypt, in the
1970's, the price of bread was raised by an amount that the citizens felt was too high.
The result was major riots. The threat of similar riots is still alive according to the
information gathered for this study and thus it seems natural that inflation be one of the
indicators examined in this study. One must also give attention to inequality, be that
income inequality or general social inequality, when discussing the social effects of an
industry. Income inequality has been linked to violent crime in past literature (Hsieh and
Pugh, 1993) (Kennedy and Kawachi, 1998). One reason that this inequality may cause
violent crime is that it may instill a feeling of desperation of those that it affects
negatively. These people may feel as though their only option is to use violent crime to
enhance their position. This would seem to be especially true if one has tried lawful and
peaceful ways of enhancing his or her position, without success. This could explain some
of the violence that has been occurring in the Nigerian oil producing sectors. In addition,
if we are trying to discover whether or not the oil extraction is benefiting those who live
near the land on which extraction is occurring, inequality levels seem the best way to do
so. Another way to do so is to examine the level of education within the country, as this
is one way that individuals can work themselves out of poverty. In order to do so, this
study will examine literacy level in the countries discussed of all adults over the age of
15. Although, both being developing nations with strong Muslim influence, it seems
|
|
 Convention | | All Academic Convention makes running your annual conference simple and cost effective. It is your online solution for abstract management, peer review, and scheduling for your annual meeting or convention. | | Submission - Custom fields, multiple submission types, tracks, audio visual, multiple upload formats, automatic conversion to pdf. | | Review - Peer Review, Bulk reviewer assignment, bulk emails, ranking, z-score statistics, and multiple worksheets! | | Reports - Many standard and custom reports generated while you wait. Print programs with participant indexes, event grids, and more! | | Scheduling - Flexible and convenient grid scheduling within rooms and buildings. Conflict checking and advanced filtering. | | Communication - Bulk email tools to help your administrators send reminders and responses. Use form letters, a message center, and much more! | | Management - Search tools, duplicate people management, editing tools, submission transfers, many tools to manage a variety of conference management headaches! | | Click here for more information. |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
