Why Nations Fail
The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Ratings44
Average rating3.7
15
The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
Ratings44
Average rating3.7
Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?
Is it culture, the weather, or geography that determines prosperity or poverty? As *Why Nations Fail* shows, none of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Drawing on fifteen years of original research, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is our man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or the lack of it). Korea, to take just one example, 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 differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created those two different institutional trajectories. Acemoglu and Robinson marshal extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, among them:
Will China's economy continue to grow at such a high speed and ultimately overwhelm the West?
Are America's best days behind it? Are we creating a vicious cycle that enriches and empowers a small minority?
Reviews with the most likes.
A really good book that covers what it wants to say in an easy way and understandable way even for non-economics or politics ‘masters'. The theories that present make sense and are backed by dozens of real-life examples that are taken all over the world and all over the course of history.
Through reading it you can easily compare it with the situation in your country and make compares if your country is doing the right things or the wrong ones. So, a very insightful book that gets stuck in your mind with its examples and you can even use it when discussing with others about the topics of economy, power, poverty, centralized state, etc. Highly recommended if you are interested in these topics.
You could summarize this (and answer the question in the title) into: due to extractive political and (subsequently) economical institutions. But then you would miss most of the fun in reading thorough examples and detailed rhetoric of why that is the case.
