Honors Theses
Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Croft Institute for International Studies
First Advisor
Timothy Nordstrom
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This thesis analyzes whether there is a positive correlation between the levels of government-directed violence and oil wealth, against the backdrop of the Arab Spring. Have governments of the Middle East and North African (MENA) states that possess more oil wealth used more violence on their protesting citizens than governments of states that have little or no oil wealth? Does the so-called “resource curse” apply to the outcomes of the Arab Spring? This thesis attempted to answer these questions by (1) studying the levels of government-directed violence in the Arab Spring uprisings and (2) examining the oil wealth and oil reliance of six MENA states: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. F indings show that higher levels of oil wealth corresponded to higher levels of government-directed violence in MENA states are not monarchies, because with the exception of Bahrain, the other 5 states did show a positive correlation between the levels of oil wealth and government-directed violence. Further research on this topic showed that other monarchies in the MENA also had behavior similar to Bahrain, thus the thesis concludes that the “resource-curse” hypothesis does hold true under certain conditions.
Recommended Citation
Dharmaratne, Vihara Anjalee, "Oil Wells and Well-Oiled Guns: The Resource Curse and Government-Directed Violence During the Arab Spring Uprisings" (2012). Honors Theses. 2317.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2317
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