Asien och Resursförbannelsen: En empirisk studie över demokrati och naturtillgångar

Abstract

Democracy in Asia has declined over the last decade which affects the whole world economically, socially, and politically. For reversing the trend and to implement proactive measures for countries at risk of being autocratized, an understanding of processes that affect the degree of democracy is required. Abundance of natural resources is in theory linked to reduced levels of democracy. This study poses the question whether there is empirical evidence for The Resource Curse in Asia in modern times. The question has up till now not been subject to thorough investigation, possibly due to the strong financial development in Asia which contradicts the curse. The Resource Curse is, however, not only characterized by financial properties, but also by political and social qualities. This makes the study highly relevant since one characteristic does not exclude another. Using multivariate linear regression with panel data including 46 Asian countries on a time frame from 1970 to 2019, three different types of models were evaluated. The conclusion was that no evidence for a Resource Curse was found in Asia with respect to democracy when the whole continent was evaluated. Since the curse has already been documented for specific Asian regions and separate countries, the findings of this study sheds new light on the Resource Curse. The result could be regarded as an indication that a combination of resource abundance and currently unknown factors are required for the curse to develop.