ABSTRACT
Saudi Arabia is in many ways a paradox, its austere Wahhabist Islam contrasting sharply with the highly advanced corporate efficiency of its gigantic state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco. Saudi Arabia is encircled by Syria, Bahrain and Yemen—countries in the throes of civil unrest or even outright civil war. Over the years, Saudi Arabian economic growth has been driven by developments in international oil markets. While the oil curse literature is instructive, there has been a tendency for many researchers to over-generalize the occurrence of the phenomenon. The World Bank's Governance data set provides estimates of the six key dimensions of governance: voice and accountability; political stability, absence of violence; government effectiveness; regulatory quality; rule of law; and control of corruption, for the years 1996–2011. In the case of voice and accountability, the oil blessing countries averaged roughly in the 30th percentile.
