DEMOCRACYDIGEST: “Oil fuelling Ecuador's authoritarian populism”

Is Ecuadorean democracy the latest victim of the resource curse?
Record oil revenues are fuelling Ecuador’s ‘authoritarian creep’ and bolstering the populist appeal of President Rafael Correa.
“A doubling in public spending under Correa adheres to a formula that has also aided the political longevity of his leftist allies Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Cristina Fernandez of Argentina and Evo Morales of Bolivia,” reports suggest:
Ecuador devotes a greater share of its economy to public investment than any other nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, spending 10 percent of gross domestic product. Oil accounts for about a third of government revenues in this OPEC member nation, whose proven oil reserves of 6.5 billion barrels are surpassed in South America only by those of Venezuela and Brazil.