Open AccessThe Political Consequences of Resource Dependence - How Natural Gas Export Can Affect Policy Outcomes: A Quantitative Analysis
Author(s) -
Øistein Harsem
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of contemporary european research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.299
H-Index - 15
ISSN - 1815-347X
DOI - 10.30950/jcer.v8i1.338
Subject(s) - communication source , politics , economics , government (linguistics) , affect (linguistics) , resource dependence theory , natural resource , yield (engineering) , public economics , resource (disambiguation) , microeconomics , political science , psychology , statistics , law , linguistics , philosophy , materials science , mathematics , communication , metallurgy , computer network , computer science
With the use of a liberal/rational framework as a baseline, this article examines whether economic asymmetric interdependence can yield political influence. More specifically, it examines exogenous gas supply to the EU and develops a theory that provides testable hypotheses aiming to answer whether the export of gas provides political advantages for the sender state. The outlined hypotheses, and more, are tested in a cross sectional time series dataset, where votes in the United Nations (UN) Assembly are used as the dependent variable, as a measurement for the policy preferences of states. The empirical findings support the prediction made in the theory section. Gas dependence has a conditional effect on policy behaviour. The sender government has to be a sizeable international power, whilst the recipient government should have low military capabilities and be dependent on foreign support.