Why Botswana is a Deviant Case to the Natural Resource Curse?
Abstract
The resource curse thesis generally considers the profusion of natural resources as an anti-thesis to development. This correlation is based on empirical evidence from countries that are resource endowed (such as Angola, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan) but have faulted in realizing economic development as they were and continue to be predisposed to unrelenting socio-economic and political ills than countries that are less endowed with natural resources (i.e Singapore). Yet, there are a few countries that are glutted with high value extractive resources but deviated in the way they used those resources. Botswana is one such a country that has demonstrated that ' the resource curse ' is avoidable. This paper argues that Botswana is a deviant case of success in the way it has managed its natural resources. Its deviance has become a conundrum for researchers and policy analysts who seek to understand how this was achieved. This paper seeks to explain why this was possible for Botswana when equally endowed countries faulted.
*Corresponding Author: Professor, University of Botswana, E-Mail: sebudubu@mopipi.ub.bw
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