Oil and the failure of development: Iran and Venezuela in the twentieth century

Three events that disrupted worldwide monetary stability divided the twentieth century into distinct historical periods. The end of the international gold standard in 1932, the devaluation of the dollar in 1971, and the collapse of oil prices in 1986 disrupted economic and political trends on a global scale. Not only do the outcomes of these three events confirm the broad influence of significant adjustments to international monetary systems, but they also help validate the existence of a global economic system throughout most of the century. The collapse of the gold standard ended worldwide free trade, which returned, to some extent, toward the end of the century. The devaluation of the dollar coincided with the growing importance of oil as the world's primary source of energy, and the changes that occurred after 1971 and 1986 resulted primarily from disruptions in oil supplies and in price fluctuations. Because oil became increasingly more critical to industrial development and expansion during the century, oil-exporting countries experienced significant revenue increases during periods of high prices and often suffered economically when prices fell. The effects of the rise and fall of oil revenues was particularly evident in oil-producing developing countries, where governments depended largely on the country's oil industry and whose leaders were often reluctant to loosen their direct control over the economy. In order to understand the worldwide consequences of these three events, this dissertation examines their effects for a specific set of countries in two different regions but under similar development conditions---Iran and Venezuela.