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Oil Wealth and the Poverty of Politics: Algeria Compared. By Miriam R. Lowi. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 252p. $94.00, cloth, $31.99 paper.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2013

Pauline Jones Luong
Pauline Jones Luong*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

Although Miriam R. Lowi's primary goal is to explain “the enigma of Algeria” (p. 16), her analysis extends far beyond this individual country to shed light on questions that are of broad interest to students of comparative politics. Indeed, as is indicative of all so-called single-country case studies, her in-depth investigation of Algeria's postindependence trajectory—from its “unfulfilled expectations” in the 1980s to its “descent into violence” in the 1990s and then “the [state's] resurgence” in the 2000s (p. 7)—is at the outset an attempt to explain a larger class of phenomena. Lowi is quite explicit in this regard. In sum, she seeks to “extend [her] argument about Algeria” to explain, first, why oil-rich states experience different kinds of political stability in the face of similar economic shocks, and second, what role, if any, oil wealth has played in fueling these political outcomes (p. 17).

Type
Critical Dialogue
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 596 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

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