Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on local content in the oil and oil service sectors and the changing accumulation strategies of the domestic elite, this book questions what kinds of development are possible through natural resource extraction and argues that a new form of developmental state - the 'petro- developmental state' - may now be emerging in the Gulf of Guinea, allowing states to capitalise on a resource that has traditionally been thought of as a 'curse'. In a new moment for the extraction of oil created by a changed domestic context in Angola and Nigeria and changed geopolitical realities, new possibilities exist for state-led economic and social development and capitalist transformation. Ovadia contends that ultimately whether development or underdevelopment results from the transformation depends not only on historical conditions, but also on power relations and struggles at the level of civil society. Local content is perhaps the single most important innovation in energy policy in the Global South in recent decades.Expanding debates about state- led development and the developmental state, the concept of a petro-developmental state offers an explanation for how some of the most strategically significant countries in Africa can achieve meaningful economic and social progress.
Trade Review'A masterly overview … this brilliant book opens up new vistas … and extends the frontiers of existing knowledge on Africa's political economy of oil … [The Petro-Developmental State in Africa] will alter the way in which the natural resources-development nexus in Africa is debated for some time to come.' -- Africa
'This informed, nuanced monograph adds to the emerging "Africa Rising" discourses. The "petro-developmental state" advances notions of African capitalism and developmentalism with a focus on local content, entrepreneurs and civil society with original case studies of indigenous companies and NGOs. Ovadia anticipates post-2015 development in the energy region of the Gulf of Guinea.' * Timothy M Shaw, Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts, Boston *
