Talk:Rentier state

Interesting. Can someone include some examples of rentier states? Pelago 14:40, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

Pretty much all of the middle eastern oil states; countries which export loads of oil, have negligable other industries of their own, and are pretty much exclusively military or royal dictatorships. -- Tom Anderson 2006-11-10 19:20 +0000

'' Why don't you try and start making the list? I'm sure it would be really useful. Let's see ... Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, ...

Are there any examples of rentier states other than oil states? 115.64.142.162 (talk) 03:03, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Jordan and Syria cannot be called rentier states. Luciani's definition stipulaltes (admittedly somewhat arbitraily) that a rentier state must accrue at least 40% of its income from rents. Neither of these states meet this criteria. Indeed, the analytical vlaue of the rentier state model (primarily the ability to allocate resources for little or nothing in return) does not apply to Syria and Jordan

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The rentier state theory is one of several explanations for the failure to develop of the middle eastern countries; there are others, but it's so long since i read about this stuff that i've forgotten them. It would be really good if we had a link from here to those other theories, or to a page like "political history of the middle east" or something. -- Tom Anderson 2006-11-10 19:20 +0000

Too Middle-East centric?
The article seems entirely focussed on talking about Rentier states in the context of the Middle East. Perhaps some historical examples would help? Also, it would be nice to have some perspective of how widely these ideas are accepted in the political science community as a whole. If 99% of political scientists think this theory is correct, then the article is probably okay, but if only 50% do, then the article needs to quote some counter-arguments. --61.214.155.14 (talk) 00:54, 4 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed, Russia definetly fits the definition much more then many Middle East states. 151.115.58.86 (talk) 16:51, 30 April 2022 (UTC)

What is it called when resources are rented to local citizens?
In the United States it generally is not possible to own land, due to property taxes. The taxes are effectively rent paid to the government for use of the land.

It is not possible to occupy land and not pay taxes on it, so the land isn't actually owned by the tenant at all but is exclusively the property of the government. Failure to pay the government for rent will eventually result in prosecution, fines, and eviction.

So what is this called? It appears to be the same thing. DMahalko (talk) 05:27, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

Deleted External Link
I deleted this link: Because it doesn't have anything to do with Rentier States or Democratization. It only refers to opposition to the Iraq War. --205.155.65.233 (talk) 18:38, 19 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Rentier States and Democratization

I don't understand "rent."
In common parlance, "rent" refers to paying money for the temporary use of something. I don't understand how this applies to oil. 211.225.34.166 (talk) 02:40, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

pronunciation
How is "rentier" pronounced? My guess is ren tyear' - Is that right?211.225.34.166 (talk) 02:42, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

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Why doesn’t this article address states in which the economy is heavily dominated by investment banking and the government is controlled by the rentier class of the population?
Shouldn’t this article consider this kind of rentier state? According to economist Michael Hudson that is what the United States is. To see how this is correct see the Sectoral Balance chart at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sectoral_balances in which QE overwhelmed every other component of the Private Sector and Government Sector in 2008-2015, the government expense feeding the rentier class (investment banking). As discussed in other sections the government of a rentier state is typically authoritarian, and the US is being transformed into an authoritarian state through control of the government by Wall Street, primarily Goldman Sachs. Lobdillj (talk) 11:10, 23 August 2017 (UTC)

Improving quality
I want to improve the quality of this page. First of I find the current definition confusing. I want to structurally define the Rentier State and add later contributions such as semi-rentier state, strategic rentier states and refugee rentier states among others. Second, I want to clearly describe the academic debate on the effects of rentier state on democracy and development. For this I want to use a wider variety of sources than currently used. And at last I'm interested in forming an initial list of rentier states. This is however quite difficult as definitions differ and the amount of rentier states has changed historically. I'm open to any suggestions. Victorhartman (talk) 11:24, 9 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I've not seen it, but the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 47 Issue 1 is devoted to "Revisiting Rentierism: The Changing Political Economy of Resource-Dependent States in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.253.87 (talk) 22:16, 5 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that is a great source, I can use that. I also like that it contains some comments by Luciani who was the co-author on The Rentier State (1987) Victorhartman (talk) 11:55, 7 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I've tried cleaning up the citations as the Beblawi sources was showing up four times in bibliography. I hope someone can check to see if it's done right now Victorhartman (talk) 10:34, 14 May 2020 (UTC)

Improving the quality of the article and especially cleaning up the bibliography is a good idea. It is quite messy.It is clear there was some source bias. Comparing the definition of rentier states now and before, it is way better - clear and concise. Car4uso (talk) 10:34, 15 May 2020 (UTC)

Fareed Zakaria
Why does this page mention Fareed Zakaria with no actual reference? Maybe this should be removed, unless someone provides a source. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Releere (talk • contribs) 18:58, 24 April 2021 (UTC)