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. Best Read Why Nations Fail Author Daron Acemoğlu For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr The book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson comes with book jacket praise from the usual suspects Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame, Jared Diamond of Collapse fame, Nobel Prize laureate George Akerlof, and Niall Ferguson, champion of imperialism Thomas Freidman dashed off a quick review in his New York Times column for April 1, 2012 Freidman, the giddy fan of globalization, was ecstatic, although he admitted that he was reading the book, but not that he had read i The book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A Robinson comes with book ...This economic history is, as far as it goes, excellent The main thesis is ultra simple nations must develop inclusive economic and political institutions if they are to achieve prosperity Such political institutions include fair and free elections, an independent judiciary, uncorrupt legislative and executive branches etc etc Inclusive economic institutions include financial controls such as in the U.S the Fed, the SEC, trust breaking litigation, and so forth The authors say all of these This eco...This could be written in one chapter or a long magazine piece Has an interesting theory, but it just goes on for too long and not worth spending the time.Their main thesis is very interesting that there is a strong link between political social institutions and the economic success or failure of a nation.Compare Botswana, which has achieved remarkable growth despite the AIDS epidemic, and Zimbabwe Compare South Korea, which was poor, and is now a regional power, to North Korea, where the huddled skeletal masses pluck corn kernels from feces to survive while the Kim clan gorged on cognac.The main reason states are successful, say Acemoglu and R Their main thesis is very interesting that there is a strong link between political social institutions and the economic success or failure of a nation.Compare Botswana, which has achieved remarkable growth despite the AIDS epidemic, and Zimbabwe Compare South Korea, which was poor, and is now a regional power, to North Korea, where the huddled skeletal masses pluck corn kernels from feces to survive while the Kim clan gorged on cognac.The main reason states are successful, say Acemoglu and Robi...Such an insightful and shocking book The examples are very well explained, and I truly enjoyed thinking and discussing the points raised in this book Only ifpeople would read this book and understand that it is not for the lack of aid to poor countries, but the very political and economical structure of the country that makes it poor The whole inclusive and extractive political eco...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 toward inclusivenes 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 seg...Overall very very interesting and very important topic I would give it 5 stars except it is very long, detailed, and not an easy read However well worth it.Thesis in brief some countries are properous, and others are not What causes the difference Some are right next to each other and the difference in prosperity can not be explained by geography, climate, or even culture Instead it is the system, and what is it about the system that explains the difference They elaborate a theory that t Overall very very interesting ...The central idea of the book is that states fail because of their political institutions, namely because of their extractive nature This thesis is extremely simplistic.Economic processes are never this one dimensional The authors argue that the three theories of poverty nations are poor because of their unfortunate geographic location, their culture does not facilitate growth and the West simply does not know how to transform poor countries into rich ones are completely irrelevant which I di The central idea of the book is that states fail because of their political institutions, namely because of their extractive nature This thesis is extremely simplistic.Economic processes are never this one dimensional The authors argue that the three theories of poverty nations are poor because of their unfortunate geographic location, their culture does not facilitate growth and the West simply does not know how to transform poor countries into rich ones are completely irrelevant which I disagree with In this sense, the book reads like an essay written by an undergraduate student who has been told to pick a viewpoint and stick to it and back it up no matter what The assumption that only politics and political institutions determine whether a country is poor or prosperous is too one sided The authors also back their ideas up with countless examples from hi...I think the premise of this book is fantastic, and the first 50 pages were terrific Beyond that, I was pretty disappointed by the execution The book is built upon the theory that it is not economic policies, but rather institutions such as good governance, social norms and a strong legal system that play the fundamental role in economic growth and development I find this to be a compelling theory and I think it is an extremely useful framework from which to view economic and political dev I think the premise of this book is fantasti...The hypothesis is clear very early on what follows is an evidence loaded journey that keeps hammering the intriguing and simple message home that extractive, exclusive institutions wreck a country while profiting the elite who holds the power to change the institutions and inclusive institutions provide a country with economical growth, while on the long run providing mechanisms through which inclusive institutions are kept.As many other reviewers have noted, they are however simplistic in p The hypothesis is clear very early on what follows is an evidence loaded journey that keeps hammering the intriguing and simple message home that extractive, exclusive institutions wreck a country while profiting the elite who holds the power to change the institutions and inclusive institutions provide a country with economical growth, while on the long run providing mechanisms through which inclusive institutions are kept.As many other reviewers have noted, they are however simplistic in providing and debunking counter evidence They unfortunately never ask the question that s begged in this book Are there structural explanations for the rise of extractive institutions All in all, an important book that tries to explain the rampant poverty still around in the world If you want to re...

• English
• 01 September 2018
Daron Acemoğlu
• Hardcover
• 544 pages
• 0307719219
• Daron Acemoğlu
• Why Nations Fail