Editing Rentier state (section)

{{Short description|Government which derives all or most of its income from foreigners}}
{{About|rentier states|other uses|Rentier (disambiguation){{!}}Rentier}}

In current [[political science|political-science]] and [[international relations|international-relations]] theory, a '''rentier state''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|ɒ|n|t|i|eɪ}} {{respell|RON|tee|ay}} or {{IPAc-en|r|ɑ̃|ˈ|t|j|eɪ}}) is a [[state (polity)|state]] which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the [[economic rent]] paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments.<ref name="Mahdavy 1970, p. 428">Mahdavy 1970, p. 428</ref>

The academic use of the term rentier states and rentier states theories (RST) became well known after the works of [[Hazem El Beblawi]] and [[Giacomo Luciani]] on the development of oil-rich countries, known as [[petrostate]]s, in the [[Persian Gulf]].<ref>Ross 2001</ref> They show that rentier states receive income without an increase in the productivity of the domestic economy or political development of the state, that is, the ability to [[tax]] citizens. The unequal distribution of external income in rentier states has thus a negative effect on [[political liberalism]] and [[economic development]]. With virtually no taxes citizens are less demanding and politically engaged and the income from rents negates the need for economic development.<ref name="Beblawi 1987">Beblawi 1987</ref>

{{As of|2020}}, rentier state theories were a dominant frame of reference for studies of resource-dependent countries in [[Persian Gulf|the Gulf]] and the [[Greater Middle East|wider Middle East and North African region]],<ref name="Yamada 2020">Yamada 2020</ref> but were also used to analyse other forms of rentierism.