You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please see our. We use MailChimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to MailChimp for processing. Learn more about MailChimp's privacy practices here. Simon Maxwell has also reviewed the book. Duncan, I agree on your highlighting of key trends as well as the bias toward an American model of inclusive political institutions that may bear only a passing resemblence to present practice, and the embedded norm of a liberal market economy with limited state involvement.
I also found the historical sections that identify when and how path dependence continues or breaks, in terms of institutional drift, as the most interesting part to read. And that tendency and resulting criticism seems to be as much about reader expectations as about author intentions. We just have to keep muddling through. The history of the last few hundred years shows that Westerners cannot understand China when they analyse it through a western lens!!
Having finished the book recently, my problem with the book is two fold- a. Was fun reading it, but not sure what I take back after completing it beyond an understanding of some lesser known but absolutely fascinating periods of history. Very well reviewed Duncan. I also agree with your critique of American devotionalism. Read more reviews by Janet. Search for:. Blog Admin August 26th, Find this book The scholarly work of Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson is already widely known among economic historians, economists and political scientists.
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To accept cookies, click continue. To summarize, I agree with Acemoglu and Robinson that institutions are important.
If they had said that, they would have written a completely wonderful book in which I would have found nothing to criticize. Unfortunately, they overstated their case and dismissed the roles of factors other than institutions. I continue to recommend their book as a sparkling account of the role of institutions. I hope that their next book will be an equally sparkling one, about the roles of those other factors. Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest.
Read Next. Submit a letter: Email us letters nybooks. Daron Acemoglu James A. Robinson Cambridge, Massachusetts Jared Diamond replies : My review praised Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson for writing a wonderful book about the role of institutions in shaping why countries are rich or poor. This Issue August 16, Yasmine El Rashidi. The prevalence of domesticable livestock, arable land, and plants that are able to be harvested make critical differences in the productivity of a people.
For example, the lack of horse, cattle, sheep, wheat, and barley in your country, no matter how altruistic and centralised your political systems are, will leave you at a disadvantage compared to a nation that has access to these resources. Higher productivity leads to more time dedicated to other pursuits inventing, writing, thinking, creating permanent settlements.
The importance of the absence of these resources is unduly discounted in the book. Finally comes what can be deduced from the discussion, even if unintended. The authors have attempted to explain historically why nations have failed. In their thesis they rightly dismiss the factors of culture and ignorance, and discount the importance of trade interdependence and geography. The modern world, however, is far less constrained by these limitations — livestock and crops can be grown around the world, thanks to irrigation, people are able to travel to any number of nations, and global trade is indispensably intertwined.
This largely removes these limitations. So although Acemoglu and Robinson have attempted to explain the historical reasons nations have failed in the past, they have paradoxically provided both a predictive paper on why nations will fail in the future and a blueprint for prosperity for contemporary policy practitioners who are conversant with development theory. In a sentence, it is those countries that establish inclusive political and economic institutions that will succeed.
View the discussion thread. Books for self-isolation: Revisiting Why Nations Fail. Scott Robinson. Related Content. In Yemen, a deadly concoction of arms sales, conflict and Covid
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