Corruption, Natural Resources and Development

Reviews / Votes

'This is a book that deals with issues that are crucial for the survival of humans, vital for the health of the earth and essential for governance and economic development in 21st century. One of the interesting features of this book is that cross-disciplinary or contextual. The analyses are placed in their proper socio-legal, political and economic contexts. It therefore makes for easy reading by the non-specialist and practical application of the conclusions or recommendations by stakeholders. There is no doubt that all the 13 essays and the introduction are very well written. The language is crisp, fluent and accessible. The subjects covered are wide-ranging and captivating.' -- Francis Nii Botchway, Journal of World Energy Law and Business 'This book on Corruption, Natural Resources and Development helps us understand, through qualitative analysis, the processes through which unequal distributions manifest and, in doing so, provides valuable insights about the paradox of plenty, resource governance, and economic underdevelopment. It is an accessible and non-technical complement to quantitative economics research on related topics.' -- Dominic Parker, The Energy Journal 'This is an excellent book which challenges us to rethink the relationship between natural resources and corruption. It offers a wide range of rich and detailed cases - when combined they powerfully demonstrate how a political ecology approach can help us move beyond approaches to corruption which define it simply as "deviance". The result is a book which is of great value to academics and practitioners alike. If you want to understand how corruption shapes natural resources use and extraction, this is a must-read.' -- Rosaleen Duffy, The University of Sheffield, UK 'This fascinating and wide-ranging collection shows how politics and power interact to limit the social benefits of natural resource endowments. Stressing the context-dependent nature of rent seeking and corruption, the authors move beyond the simplistic "resource curse" literature to highlight the key role of self-seeking local elites and of aid programs that fail to cope with local political realities.' -- Susan Rose-Ackerman, Yale University, US