The Natural Resource Curse Theory:Causes And Solutions For Sub-Saharan African Countries

The resource curse theory(RCT),has first been described in 1990 in the book of Richard Auty's,which has an ideological discourse on development,based on the economics of neoliberal development.Developing countries with abundant natural resources are cursed by this wealth,especially minerals and oil.Based on comparative statistics from the 1970s to the 1990s,precursors of the resource curse theory claim that developing countries with resource endowments have struggled negatively,with economic growth performance trying to be industrialization and improve their social well-being compared to developing countries that do not have similar natural resources such as South Korea.According to The Resource Curse theorists,and in discordance with the assumptions of the modernization theory of the 1940s and 1950s,the abundance of natural resources is supposed to be the launcher for a rapid accumulation of capital that would become the main point of rapid industrialization and sustained economic growth for resource-rich developing countries.These countries,especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced economic regression trends,systemic corruption,civil wars,political instability and a general decline in the standard of living and well-being of the people and this,especially in African countries.Thus,according to the Resource Curse Theorists,resource-poor developing countries prospered because they they have been looking for export oriented "free market",such as open trade,where developing countries or countries rich in the natural resource are looking for "autarkic"(highly regulated)policies that led to their regression.As a result,these theorists conclude that the solution to the resource curse lies in free-market policies.This thesis critically examines the RCT in terms of political economy and establishes that the effects of the resource curse have a result identical to that described by political economists in the 1950s and 1960s as underdevelopment.The difference in the choice of words to explain the same effects comes from the ideology from which the poverty and backwardness of the third world are discussed.For the theorists of the resource curse,the neoliberals perspective,internal factors such as political corruption,transparency,and good governance are reasons for the resource curse according.In a political-economic situation,the volatility of world prices of commodities,capital flight,tax evasion,colonialism,imperialism,neo-colonialism,and globalization is also the cause of underdevelopment.Our work establishes both internal and external factors contributing to the poverty of resources rich countries and the specific case of Subsaharan-African countries.As internal factors,which means reasons for the resource curse linked to the national realities,we talked about the political destabilization.How political troubles can turn this true blessing in a wicked curse.Also,the rent-seeking theory is very impacting on the development of these countries.Other important reasons are the corruption and the insecurity which can be considered as a permanent situation in almost all the sub-Saharan African countries and lead them to strong underdevelopment,despite their natural resources.More fact is the external reasons for the resource curse that are mainly based on the western countries and their postcolonialism or neocolonialism policies in African countries,the capitalist system,and the globalization.Colonial laws have stripped indigenous peoples of their property rights over their natural resources,which neo-colonial nation-states have retained at the independence period,and have then transferred them to transnational corporations in return for license fees and equity giving no control to natives.Local ruling elites and foreign capitalists share resources,leaving the striped majority of the population in a sometimes very precarious living style.The thesis comes on to the solution that,in order to turn this curse of natural resource into a nature blessing,the SUB-Saharan African countries,should reform their laws,politics and economic statements,in term of corruption,transparency,diversification of the economy and also the education,in order to allow majority ownership and control of their citizens and make them feel by the increasing of their lifestyle,the revenue of the country resources.