Point Books During Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
| Original Title: | Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty |
| ISBN: | 0307719219 (ISBN13: 9780307719218) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Lionel Gelber Prize Nominee (2013), Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Nominee for Shortlist (2012), Arthur Ross Book Award for Honorable Mention (2013), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Nonfiction (2012) |
Daron Acemoğlu
Hardcover | Pages: 544 pages Rating: 4.06 | 27486 Users | 2678 Reviews
Explanation Supposing Books Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
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.
Define Of Books Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
| Title | : | Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty |
| Author | : | Daron Acemoğlu |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 544 pages |
| Published | : | March 20th 2012 by Crown Business (first published March 2012) |
| Categories | : | Economics. Nonfiction. Politics. History. Business |
Rating Of Books Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Ratings: 4.06 From 27486 Users | 2678 ReviewsComment On Of Books Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
This is an excellent book about the reasons why some nations are prosperous, while others are steeped in poverty. The authors contend that some nations have "inclusive" economic and political policies. These policies give a political voice to a large segment of the population, rather than only to a small elite. As a result, a set of checks and balances tends toward a positive feedback, sometimes called a "virtuous cycle". This virtuous cycle helps to accelerate the tendencies towardA fascinating (albeit difficult to grasp) study on why some nations succeed whilst others fail. The amount of information in this book is astounding, seeing as it is the result of 15 years of research on the topic. This is definitely a book I will re-read, because with a first read you just get the basic argument, but with the second one you get all the subtleties. I recommend this to anyone with an interest in why our world is the way it is.
By Pierre BriançonThe book begins in Nogales, a city divided by a fence along the border of Arizona and Mexico, and ends 450 pages later in China, with the story of a young entrepreneur arrested in 2004 for having started a large steel plant competing with the state-owned companies. In between Why Nations Fail is a highly readable narrative of a breathtaking trip: from the Neolithic Revolution to 16th century England, from Spains Philip II to Stalin, from the Mayan city-states to the Portuguese
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson's Why Nations Fail examines the impact our human-created institutions have on our economies and creation of a "good life" for the many. They do this with a lot of detail. Many of their observations both apparent and useful. Despite this, the book has a number of flaws that seem, to this reviewer at least, critical. Let's start with the good: the author's central thesis seems sound. Governments and the institutions they create do matter. For instance, consider
Actually, I didn't really like WNF. I believe there is real value in the concept of extractive institutions, but the book did a poor job of presenting it. In general, they spent too much time on historical illustrations (probably 80% of the book). It is very hard to extract their conclusions which are hidden away among the historical examples. Also, I felt they spent too much time branding this as extractive and that as inclusive without detailing why it is so.Any good theory should be
To Acemoglu and Robinson, the economic prosperity of a nation is a direct function of its political institutions, which in turn are dependent only on historical contingencies. "Extractive" political structures create an economy only to benefit the small ruling class (and therefore are extremely hostile to the wealth-creation of creative destruction, which can only harm the interests of this ruling class. "Inclusive" political institutions, on the other hand, create incentives for large-scale
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