Resource nationalism and asymmetric bargaining power: a study of government-MNC strife in Venezuela and Tanzania

Abstract

This work conducts a comparative analysis of strife between governments and multinational corporations (MNC) in Venezuela and Tanzania, postulating that subtle shifts in bargaining power stemming from petroleum in Venezuela and diamonds in Tanzania lead to large differences in government-MNC strife. Oil-rich Venezuela tends to experience incrementally consistent and capital-intensive strife pinned against prices, which quickly becomes inter-sectionalised and internationalised. Conversely, diamond-wealthy Tanzania suffers from intermittent, erratic, localised, and labour-focused strife independent of diamond prices, which becomes neither inter-sectionalised nor internationalised. Such asymmetric shifts in bargaining power, though initially insignificant, ultimately produce variations in outcomes, contributing to different styles of resource nationalism.