Uncovering the Secrets to Why Some Nations Thrive While Others Struggle: An Exploration of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty in Why Nations Fail

Raghupati Sahai: The book is a collection of many real-life economic and political decisions which led different outcomes throughout the world.
Writers have discussed cause and effect of Industrial Revolution, on Britain and subsequently on Europe and other parts of the world by using the politico-economic tools like Imperialism and Colonialism.
Writers have proposed a thesis focusing on examples related to Democracy, Socialism and Modernization processes in a cyclical manner to substantiate rise and fall of societies, polities, nations and sometimes civilizations.

Sometimes the book becomes tough to read because of totally new names and countries with there leaders.

Writers have simply established that old systems are bound to become exploitative and narrow. They have further suggested that to survive and grow, new economic and political systems should be adopted. They have also suggested that Democracy and Modernization are inter-connected as well as by-products of each other.

India on Jul 28, 2023

Andrea Balducci: Firstly, I have to say that I am not well acquainted with the argument of economic development and its related issues. Consequently, my opinion can be addresses as the layman impression on a very complex argument.
That being said, I found Acemoglu-Robinson’s research on “Why nations fail” an outstanding, thought-provoking introductory explanation - though maybe partial and somewhat biased - of the many different social, political and mostly economic realities we witness around the world and through the ages.
If I may synthetize their work, outstandingly spreading throughout almost the whole of human history and geography, the main factors at play when it comes to understand why nations today are poorer and others are wealthier than others are essentially these:
1. Inclusive versus extractive institutions (both political and economic): Inclusive institutions mean polities, provisions and economic structures whose aim is to develop the wealth of the nation, while sharing it within the broadest base possible of society. At the opposite, extractive institutions are defined as those entities which act in order to “extract” riches, labor and political influence from...

Italy on Nov 05, 2022

Thiago: Livro bastante interessante sobre um assunto bem pertinente. O livro inteiro segue a linha de convencer o leitor de uma tese através de vários exemplos da história. A tese é "as nações fracassam porque tem instituições políticas e economia extrativas". Se você gosta de história certamente vai curtir o livro. Eles contam em detalhes a formação de diversos estados modernos e alguns antigos também.

Países com instituições extrativas são chamados assim porque têm instituições projetadas para extrair renda e riqueza de uma parte da população e tranferir para outra. Geralmente a maior parte da população é explorada para beneficiar uma minoria que domina o poder. Já instituições inclusivas têm o poder distribuído em grande parte da população, que garantem direitos mais igualitários a todos e uma participação mais ampla na economia e política. Instituições econômicas inclusivas incentivam a população a trabalhar e gerar riqueza, levando o país a prosperidade. A garantia da propriedade privada também tem um papel essencial essencial para incentivar o trabalho e ela é garantida por instituições políticas inclusivas. Os autores dão...

Brazil on Oct 25, 2018

Freh: Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. 2012.

The authors begin by comparing life in Nogales, Arizona with life in Nogales, Sonora, which is only a few feet away across the Mexican border. Residents north of the border are healthier, live longer, have three times more household income, and enjoy much better government services, including law and order, with much less corruption than residents south of the border. Due to the proximity and shared background of the two cities, these striking differences cannot be explained by the usual references to geography, culture, ignorance, or the protestant work ethic. Instead, the cause is major differences of political and economic institutions between the US and Mexico. These differences have evolved because of the way the societies were formed in the early colonial period.

Spain’s and Portugal’s conquests of Mexico, Central America, and South America were complete. Hence, they were able to replace the already exploitative institutions of the indigenous peoples with similar noninclusive, extractive institutions of their own. The new European aristocracy...

United States on Nov 23, 2017

T. Graczewski: In his 2000 bestseller “Development as Freedom” Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen made the uplifting argument that the cornerstone of international development ought to be the promotion and growth of human freedom. What his thesis notably lacked was evidence. It seems to me that evidence supporting Sen’s important hypothesis is precisely what Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson present here in “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.” This 2013 bestseller argues that only open and inclusive political institutions – those most likely to provide the freedoms Sen claims are critical – can achieve sustainable economic growth (e.g. “The central thesis of this book is that economic growth and prosperity are associated with inclusive economic and political institutions, while extractive institutions typically lead to stagnation and poverty”).

To begin with, Acemoglu and Robinson shred three of the most commonly held theses on global economic inequality, while setting the stage to argue that politics and political institutions along with their associated incentives are what really matters for long term, sustainable economic...

United States on Jun 18, 2014

Honky Tonk Woman: The authors believe that nations succeed when they have pluralist civil society where no one group is able to seize the state machinery and use it to direct the economy to their advantage. This allows creative destruction to continually revolutionize society and lead to economic growth and eventually prosperity for all. Conversely in states with weak or non-existent civil society there is always the temptation by rulers to adopt extractive economic policies that maintains the status quo.

The sheer wealth of examples and historical depth of their theory is impressive and is probably worth reading for this fact alone. Other reviews give a good outline of the argument so I'll just focus on some criticisms I have.

1. Ignoring the dangers of monopoly capitalism.

The authors illustrate how pluralist societies manage to regulate the monopoly tendency in capitalism by telling the story of how in the United States trusts like Standard Oil were broken up in the late 19th and early 20th century.

My comment would be that such monopoly busting actions is actually quite rare and only carried out in relatively healthy pluralistic societies. Marx's view that the state...

United Kingdom on Jan 02, 2014

Athan: The success of this book mirrors the progress of the "inclusive institutions" idea it talks about.

The author wrote about this stuff six years ago but did not capture the imagination of the general public. What Acemoglu does not know about growth is not worth knowing, he's the author of an excellent graduate textbook on the subject. But two transformational events have happened since 2006 that have made his ideas relevant and current: the financial crisis and, by dint of having survived it well, the emergence of China in the public's consciousness as a financial superpower.

My prejudice has always been that, warts and all, our pluralistic, capitalist, free-market system works very well. With an eye on the recent performance of markets and the increasing and often justified perceptions of stagnation and inequality in our western society, however, many people these days argue that there's another way and that China holds many of the answers. This is the book that gives you all the ammunition to demolish that theory. I think that is the secret of its massive success.

But that's a mere bonus, and the theory itself is quite beautiful. Here it is, in ten quick...

United Kingdom on Dec 14, 2012