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The predatory state theory describes how a select group inside the government, the politicians, bureaucrats or military, or an outside group with strong lobbying power, who use the state and the policymaking process to promote private interest. This group will hoard power for themselves to keep their position and will deliberately sabotage any reforms who would endanger their wealth. The neo-institutionalist economics define meanwhile each state as a predator state. States after their definition relay on predation to offer protection and to provide public goods [1] Predatory behaviour may differ from kleptocratic behaviour by the appropriation of non-monetary property for the benefit of the elites or to weaken their enemies. [2]
Predatory behaviour is likely to arise in circumstances who are common in developing nations. Those circumstances are societal in nature or are placed in the environment of the society. Predatory behaviour emerges in the societies in which political power is beneficial and society itself is unstable, possibly highly politicised. Economic circumstances supporting the rise of predatory behaviour is the abundance of natural resources and a lack of factors complementary to public investment. [3] (Robinson 1999, 3). In the case of Africa showed a study in 1997 that ethnically diverse societies can increase predatory behaviour. While the study did not produce a mechanism for this, explained Robinson this with ethnic groups being better in solving collective problems and in this way contest political power than other social groups. [3]
Economists see the state in two different approaches, predatory or contractual. In the first approaches acts the state as a coercive and exploitative, while in the second he acts as a provider of services. Neo-institutionalists economists see the contractual perspective as a system of predators protecting the prey for its own predation into the private sector. Such perspectives of state behaviour dates back to Platon who described predation and Hobbes who described in his work Leviathan the states function as a contractual. [1]
Neo-institutionalist economics emphasize three features of predatory behaviour in a contractualvision:
An appropriate vision of the state argues that a predatory state only protects to promote its predation. Predators offer protection only under three circumstances:
A challenge for the predatory perspective is the explanation of how liberal democratic welfare states can be predatory. Political economists have argued that states are either active or passive predators and have convinced the prey that it is not a prey by hidding the predation as wealth transfer. [1]
Predators use so called rent-creating devices to profit from their position. The methodes and secrecy in which they operate are depending on the power of the predator. Examples for rent-creating devices are:
Predation has a width range of negative consequences for the country ranging from income and wealth inequality, inefficient distribution of resources and investments, migration and technological development. Taxing practices targeting are used against companies or branches not controlled by the predators or their supporters while high tariffs decrease the amount of imported goods which forces people to pay the price of the locally produced alternatives – who are produced by the companies of the predators and their supporters. Revenue from the taxes can go completely into the pockets of the elite and corruptions is way easier to hide. Mismanagement of former Asian companies in Uganda caused many of them being closed down and stripped of every asset. Public projects can lose their social profitability because of the interest for personal profitability, and the distribution of resources in the government is manipulated towards the goals of the predatory elite. Public investments into projects beneficial will be granted higher priorities than ones who are not or not made. A brain drain similar to the one in Haiti between 1960 and 1968 is also observable. The brain drain in Equatorial Guinea under Franciso Macìas Nguema was so extreme that after his death in 1979 it might have been possible that all university graduates had left the country. Technological development done by small start-ups is especially hampered by the passive effects of predatory states, the ineffective distribution of resources and the brain drain, and may not be able to pay the rents and are at risk of being confiscated by the elite. [4]
Political and military ramifications include government posts filled by people who achieved their jobs by buying them and not by merit. [4] Politicians are motivated to rely on illegal options to stay in power, with presidents being able to enforce their survival with threats and even murder. Military officers are more swayed by money when deciding for new weapons of the military, and the enforcement of laws becomes less effective. [5]
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