Democracy’s fuel

The century-old concept of ‘economic quasi-rent’ is a return to factors of production in inelastic supply — or in layman’s terms income going to producers of relatively scarce commodities getting a lot of income for little extra effort. The outstanding examples of this in modern times are celebrities and oil-producers. The latter in particular have been having a great run over the past few years (the former have always done well). As the price of oil remains high, despite recent corrections, the Arab Gulf states are making even more unearned income. In other words, for a very small effort, they get a large return. Aside from limited examples of diversified commerce, and some other services including tourism in a few places like Dubai, the Gulf countries can be described as “rentier states.” In the 1980s, writing on the notion of a “rentier state,” Giacomo Luciani implied that democratization in the