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Why Nations Fail
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?
Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities.
The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories.
Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including:
- China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West?
- Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority?
- What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions?
Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.
More Books from Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
Reviews
We may constantly think about the reasons of inequality in the world across nations, although the book does not show a solution it clearly points to fundamentals that need to be in place for eliminating poverty and inequality
By hobbesmartinez
While highly uneducated, I’ve done a great deal of reading. Hands down this is the most convincing and documented recollection of why nations fail while others succeed. I lived in China for a decade and I can confirm the environment was highly inclusive. Since I left, just before Xijing Ping came to power, plurality and state control has increased and some cracks are beginning to show in the economy, particularly in housing. At the same time China dominates in EV, solar energy and has shown tremendous speed developing AI LLM and microchips that was thought were exclusive of the West. It’s too early to call their demise and while creative disruption is yet to take hold, they show tremendous ability to develop technologies as they are surfacing. The verdict is still out if China will debunk a theory that has explained the last millennia.
By Don Quijote XX
Really interesting but tended to repeat the same things over and over.
By wrconforti
This book does a wonderful job at explaining a good portion of wealth inequality between countries. It also proves to be a nice primer on modern world history. Very interesting.
By alberaq
Perfect and Excellent
By fhasanpour