Rentier Statebuilding in a Post-Conflict Economy: The Case of Kosovo

Kosovo has been under various forms of international administration since 1999. Although the political dimension of this international experience has been widely studied by scholars – especially those associated with the critical theory of liberal peacebuilding – the economic dimension of international rule has been given less attention. This article explores this dimension by linking insights from the rentier theory with critical approaches to liberal peacebuilding and statebuilding. The postulate informing this article is that the sources of income for a state have an impact on the state’s institutional development. The article discusses liberal peacebuilding through the rentier theory lens, analyses the economic management in the early years of the international administration, and describes and explores some of the unintended consequences of the massive international presence in Kosovo on the local economy.
Publisher statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Lemay-Hébert, N & Murshed, M 2016, 'Rentier Statebuilding in a Post-Conflict Economy: The Case of Kosovo' Development and Change, vol 47, no. 3, pp. 517–541. DOI: 10.1111/dech.12230, which has been published in final form at https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/dech.12230. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.