Chapter fortchcoming in: Michael Roll (ed.), State Performance and Reform in Developing Countries: Pockets of Effectiveness (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013) ‘Confidence in our own Abilities’: Suriname’s State Oil Company as a Pocket of Effectiveness1 Wil Hout Wil Hout is Professor of Governance and International Political Economy at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. His research interests relate to international relations, development assistance and issues of (‘good’) governance. He is the author of Capitalism and the Third World (Edward Elgar, 1993), The Politics of Aid Selectivity (Routledge, 2007) and (co-)editor of six volumes and special journal issues, most recently of Governance and the Depoliticisation of Development (with Richard Robison, Routledge, 2009) and EU Strategies on Governance Reform: Between Development and State-building (Routledge, 2013). He has published articles in, among others, Acta Politica, Critical Asian Studies, Development and Change, the European Journal of International Relations, the Journal of Development Studies and Third World Quarterly. Contact address: International Institute of Social Studies, Kortenaerkade 12, 2018 AX The Hague, The Netherlands Email:
[email protected] Abstract This chapter analyses the conditions under which the Surinamese State Oil Company (Staatsolie) has been consolidated, not only as a firm oriented at the production of oil, but also as a development agent. Staatsolie’s chances to success seemed rather slim at its creation in the beginning of the 1980s, mainly because of the non- developmental, patrimonial character of Surinamese politics and the nature of Suriname’s state, which has traditionally been oriented toward patronage and clientelism. The chapter documents the origins of Staatsolie and focuses on its commitment to the acquisition and further development of technological and managerial expertise.