An anti-government fighter sits with an anti-aircraft weapon at an oil refinery in Libya in 2011. Oil may be the most sought-after resource in the world, but it’s no secret that it can also be a curse. Political scientists have long observed that the oil industry concentrates power in the hands of the few. Governments that rely on oil sales, rather than taxes, are less democratic and quicker to quash dissent. According to Michael Ross , author of the “The Oil Curse,” petroleum-producing countries are 50 percent more likely to be ruled by dictators — and twice as likely to descend into civil war. That’s because oil gives people something extra to squabble over, as we have seen recently in South Sudan, Libya, and Syria. In a new twist on an old problem, rebels in all three countries have laid claim to […]