Luis Martinez, Directeur de recherché at CERI-Sciences Po – CNRS is a political scientist and specialist on Middle East and Maghreb. In Violence de la rente pétrolière he traces the steps that led Algerian, Iraqi and Libyan authoritarian regimes to power. Martinez remarks that these countries have many characteristics in common. These characteristics also differentiate them from other countries governed by similar regimes.

They had origin from some revolutionary and socialist political movements and, once reached the power, they also took control of the resources. This is is the key-point and contributes to these regimes’ longevity. These regimes have survived crisis, petroleum shocks, separatist movements, authoritarian syndrome. They even became more powerful and changed from a revenue-economy to a sack-economy, getting more and more corrupt. The course of these countries is not linked with the revenue-economy or their resources, but it comes from the meeting between the increase of the oil-barrel price after 1973 and the State controlled by political organisations, marked by revolutionary ideologies and political violence.

However, according the human development indicators, these countries didn’t developed their economies, even compared to their non oil-neighbours. The author doesn’t agree with the malédiction de resources theory: even if the petroleum-revenue has not increased the welfare of the populations, nevertheless has guaranteed these regimes stability.

What happened after the 2003 petroleum-shock? The author claims that these new financial fluxes has enhanced the non-democratic regimes in Algeria and Libya as well as the new regimes settled by the United States in Iraq. It is possible – Martinez suggests – that through the relationships with the European Union (major gas and oil importer from Maghreb) these countries will be able to manage their resources in a new and fairer way.