Midway through Winter Quarter

As I am reading The Paradox of Plenty, by Terry Lynn Karl, my readings about the political history in the last 100 years, and my observations are all slowly synthesizing. The Paradox of Plenty is answering some questions about why the agricultural sector disintegrated and other industry could not take off, despite so much money entering the country, and a history of leaders who have tried in different ways to diversify the economy. It will be really interesting to see if the new approaches that are taking place can make a dent in the import dominated market.
Karl is explaining why different late developing, oil exporting countries have ended up making similar choices, ending up with similar problems even though they have such different government structures. I now have to figure out a narrow enough topic to write an essay about, including the political history as well. I would like to look closer at why Venezuela`s agricultural sector has been crippled by the oil industry and its wealth, but I think that would be too broad.