Interestingly, only Norway seems to have avoided the resource curse. Even the UK, nominally a democratic country under a clear rule of law, ended up squandering much of its North Sea oil revenues to fund the Thatcher government's various projects rather than setting aside most of the windfall for future generations. Russia uses oil to enrich Putin & his cronies; the UK used it to buy votes. One wonders what the factors were that enabled Norway to escape?