Power Grab
Political Survival through Extractive Resource Nationalization

'Challenging conventional understandings of resource nationalization as the domain of strong rulers whose tenures are secure, Paasha Mahdavi carefully maps out and then demonstrates how much nationalization is in fact a strategy borne of political insecurity. Power Grab deftly weaves cross-national econometrics and carefully crafted comparative historical analysis to show how. Mahdavi’s analysis of the domestic and global-economic milieu in which leaders like Qaddafi gambled on, and won through, resource seizures, represents an ambitious and formidable new scholarly voice in the study of resource politics.' Benjamin Smith, University of Florida

'Mahdavi's Power Grab offers perhaps the most comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of oil nationalisation and re-nationalisation to date. By focusing on political leaders' perceptions of their probability of survival in oil rich states, it identifies an important paradox in the decision to nationalize: weaker leaders nationalize to bolster their power and become stronger as a result due to greater access to oil revenues, and yet, strong leaders opt not to nationalize, which serves to weaken their power by limiting their access to oil revenue. Power Grab thus offers important insight into the relationship between state ownership of the oil sector and regime survival.' Pauline Jones, Director, International Institute, University of Michigan

'This is a very interesting and provocative book on a timely and important topic. It should be read with great interest by academics, policymakers, and students. It speaks to issues that concern comparative political science, international relations, industrial organization, and macroeconomics. The best part about it is that it transcends stale debates about whether there is or is not a resource curse; rather, Mahdavi looks at the causes and consequences of state run oil companies with fresh eyes and exploits original data to make a truly nuanced argument. In doing so, he has really pushed the ball forward and, hopefully, opened up a new research agenda. Bravo!' Victor Menaldo, University of Washington