Oil, Democracy, and Development in Africa by John R. Heilbrunn
Release Date: April 21, 2014
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Oil, Democracy, and Development in Africa presents an optimistic analysis of the continent's oil-producing states. With attention to the complex histories, the interactions of key industry actors and policy makers, and the goals of diverse groups in society, this contribution fills a gap in the literature on resource-abundant countries. John R. Heilbrunn presents a positive assessment of circumstances in contemporary African oil exporters. The book demonstrates that even those leaders who are among the least accountable use oil revenues to improve their citizens' living standards, if only a little bit. As a consequence, African oil producers are growing economically and their people are living under increasingly democratic polities. Heilbrunn thus calls for a long-overdue reassessment of the impact of hydrocarbons on developing economies.
John R. Heilbrunn teaches at the Colorado School of Mines in the Graduate Program in the International Political Economy of Resources. He is also a research fellow at the Centre d’Études d’Afrique Noire of the Institut d’Études politique at the University of Bordeaux. His other publications include
Markets, profits and power: The politics of business in Benin and Togo.
