States and Markets in the Context of a Resource Boom: Engaging with Critical IPE

Abstract

The study of natural resources and economic development — and the lack of adequate analytical tools devised to explore its ever-changing complexity — reflects the broader crisis in development theory. Crucially, development theory around resource exploitation in poor countries has never fully analysed the constraints of the global political economy. While neoliberalism is considered as a critical juncture in the reorganisation of states and markets in the developing world, the decline of political economy considerations in development studies has been nevertheless documented (Leys, 1996; Manzo, 1991; Nederveen Pieterse, 2010).1 As a result, development politics is ill adapted for explaining — and understanding — the opportunities and challenges for resource-led development associated with the current resource boom.