The Dictator and the Parties A Study on Policy Co-operation in Mineral Economies

behaviour and results associated with an incumbent dictator. Does the existence of
inefficiencies caused by party competition imply that an alternative regime can produce better
results? A conclusion in this direction is tempting but may be without sound basis. A real case
may be enough to make the point. Contemporary Nigeria offers a notorious example to show
what a dictatorship with oil can be. More generally, if the overriding objective of the
government is that of regime survival, the nature and amount of inefficiencies might be similar.
All regimes require legitimacy to rule, and legitimacy is based on winning political support by
granting distributive or re-distributive favours to key groups.²¹ The distinctive difference could
be that in the case of non-democratic regimes, elections are unlikely events and so are the
regularities associated with the electoral timing.

²¹ See Ames (1987) for evidence of the inefficiencies associated with the political survival of dictatorships
in Latin America.

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