Governing Natural Resources

This chapter explores the place of natural resources in contemporary South American governance, understood in terms of state–market and state–society relations. It focuses on resource nationalism as a policy framework in understanding the governance and politics of South America. The chapter outlines the international political economy of natural resources, which sets the context of governance during the resource boom. It also focuses on resource nationalism as a policy paradigm to reorganise state–market and state–society relations. Oil production in the region was conducted through national oil companies, though perhaps this is less surprising given the history of resource nationalism in Latin America. The chapter analyses the transition from Washington Consensus towards resource nationalism. It argues that resource nationalism offered wider policy spaces to maximize rent capture and bring industrial policy back into the governance agenda.