legitimacy as a determining factor, and argues that authoritarian rentier regimes are in fact more fragile than they seem to be. The crucial nature of oil has led to a situation where non-oil states have started to behave like rentier states. This can be seen for the region as a whole – so some states have been able to exploit location rent due to their strategic location, for example, as sites for military bases. More significantly, inter-state relations in the region have been affected as oil states try to ensure stability and tranquillity for their rent by buying allegiance from neighbouring states – in effect, sharing the oil rent. Beblawi highlights the case of Egypt whose receipt of financial aid from oil-rich neighbours declined significantly after Camp David, and money going instead to Iraq, Syria and the PLO who were considered more assertive. Criticism Giacomo Luciani, one of the original theorists on rentier states, criticizes the dominance of rentier state theories. These theories are often solely used to analyse resource-rich countries in the Greater Middle East to explain a multitude of outcomes. Such dominance was not the intention of Luciani: Michael Herb criticizes the relationship between rentierism and regime type. Using a counterfactual measure which excludes the effect of oil on the economy, Herb shows that oil-rich countries fit the same patterns as other countries. He did not find a consistent support for the thesis that rentierism has a negative effect on democracy scores. Herb does however emphasize that rentierism is a distinctive condition that influences development. See also Petrostate Resource curse Rent-seeking Rentier capitalism Kleptocracy References Bibliography Further reading External links What is a Rentier State? State Formation Processes in Rentier States: The Middle Eastern Case The Rentier State Model and Central Asian Studies: The Turkmen Case Michael Dauderstädt: Dead Ends of Transition Rentier Economies and Protectorates Ismail Küpeli: (Keine) Demokratie im Rentierstaat Syrien? Munich 2008, (ebook about the rentier state Syria) Political science terminology Economic systems Economy of the Middle East Petroleum economics