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Why Nations Fail cover art

Why Nations Fail

By: Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
Narrated by: Dan Woren
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Summary

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 15 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2012 Daron Acemoglu (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

"Why Nations Fail is a truly awesome book. Acemoglu and Robinson tackle one of the most important problems in the social sciences - a question that has bedeviled leading thinkers for centuries - and offer an answer that is brilliant in its simplicity and power. A wonderfully readable mix of history, political science, and economics, this book will change the way we think about economic development. Why Nations Fail is a must-read book." (Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics)

"You will have three reasons to love this book: It’s about national income differences within the modern world, perhaps the biggest problem facing the world today. It’s peppered with fascinating stories that will make you a spellbinder at cocktail parties - such as why Botswana is prospering and Sierra Leone isn’t. And it’s a great read. Like me, you may succumb to reading it in one go, and then you may come back to it again and again." (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the best sellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse)
"A compelling and highly readable book. And [the] conclusion is a cheering one: The authoritarian ‘extractive’ institutions like the ones that drive growth in China today are bound to run out of steam. Without the inclusive institutions that first evolved in the West, sustainable growth is impossible, because only a truly free society can foster genuine innovation and the creative destruction that is its corollary." (Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money)

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

History made science

Breathtaking sweep across time and geography, flying along on the coat-tails of a theory that is so intuitively acceptable that it almost makes you say 'duh'. A society's institutions, extractive (bad) or inclusive (good) explain the wealth of the society and the health and happiness of the common man (and, if you are really lucky, woman). I hated history at school because it didn't explain: just one damn thing after another. This does, right up to the end where they use their theory to predict the future success of current societies. It explains why 'state building' (e.g. in Afgahanistan) is such a challenge. The UK (a pioneer in modern state building) got properly started on the process in 1215, brought in universal education in about 1890 and gave women the vote in 1928. Mind expanding book.

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36 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • M
  • 25-09-14

Repetitive, but interesting.

As has been said - repetitively - by other reviewers, this is a very repetitive book. And not just thematically. If you removed the words "inclusive", "extractive", "institutions", "glorious revolution of 1688" and ”creative destruction" the book would be about 9 hours shorter. It's still quite interesting (especially when they zoom in on specific histories, like with Botswana, Uzbekistan and Brazil, about which I knew nothing) and I kept going to the end, but the Grand Theory being espoused doesn't seem all that remarkable, unfortunately. (It can be summarised as: If your public institutions are strong enough to stop the gangsters from getting in charge, you're probably going to be okay, if not, you're screwed.) So, not bad, but not brilliant either. (Did I mention it's repetitive?")

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

unconvincing

the authors repeat the same argument over and over, stretching vast amounts of historical examples to fit it's frame.



The reflexion is weak and unconvincing, thus the authors resort to an aggressive and patronizing rhetoric to dismiss other theories regarding the disparity between nations. They seem particularly threatened by Jared Diamonds Gun, Germ and Steal, and rightly so.



Although they would have us believe that we are responsible for our own misery or prosperity because of the institutions we live by, they then admit that there is no reason for one set of institutions to appear in one place rather than another, their explanation being a parallel between their theory and evolution, small institutional differences brought forward by crisis.



there is no proper causal description, at best a messy pile of historical examples correlated with economic development. Whatever argument worth mentioning could have been said in a few paragraphs



the fact that the authors are so pleased with themselves render the all experience rather unbearable.

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22 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Interesting only as a history book

Interesting only as a history book. The assumptions of the writers are in most cases based on an one sided interpretation of historical events and they are missing some very obvious points.

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant! Revolutionise politics and economics

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson may well have done for political economy what Facastaro, Louis Pasteur and others who proposed and proved the germ theory did for medicine.

Before them there was confusion, after their work was accepted medicine made rapid progress in delivering real and effective treatments and winning the battle against disease.

Acemoglu and Robinson's theory of inclusive political institutions as being the key difference between the wealth and poverty of nations not only rings true, but their trip around the world repeating history through the lens of the theory makes a compelling case.

My main criticism is that the authors, like most academics (and politicians) went some way to critique the work of Jarred Diamond, David Lownes and others. My knowledge of the world is that whilst there are often dominant factors, there are seldom exclusive factors in explaining outcomes in complex systems. And whilst the theory is effective at explaining much of the variation in wealth in the modern world (e.g. Why the US is richer than Brazil) it does not explain everything (e.g. Why agriculture was discovered only once in Eurasia but twice and much later in Sub Saharan Africa, or even the difference between Canada and the USA). Just as germs don't cause every type of sickness.

Despite this it is an outstanding book, compelling read and must reading for politicians, economists, charities and others who shape national policy.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brillianr explanation of the World we see today!

Why Nations Fail is one of the most thought provoking books I've ever listened to.

This book explains in detail the reasons why we see the world as it is today. British, and in particular English creativity and entrepreneurism are at the heart of the story and describes how the actions of those people who wrestled power away from English elite society in the 17th century changed the face of the world for ever.

Well worth a read if you want to know why the USA succeeded to become the most powerful country in the world and didn't end up as just another failed state.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very Compelling Academic Analysis

The scope and depth of the book are immense. The points are made using dozens of different detailed examples from history. It is also an in depth study of corruption. I would strongly recommend this book.

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    2 out of 5 stars

One weak concept repeated over and over again

Overall good only for historical details. Shaky arguments on the why nations fails....you can read first 3 chapters and that’s it

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    4 out of 5 stars

Informative

This is a very informative and well written book. It's long because it incorporates many actual histories and examples to illustrate its points. It is a little dated in parts because time moves on , for example, it holds Brazil up as an example of a society which has transitioned from an extractive to inclusive regime but we know now this is not, in fact, the case. Overall though, it is a good read.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Repetitive and unconvincing even if true

What would have made Why Nations Fail better?

Shorter and succinct.

What will your next listen be?

Ardennes 1944 by Anthony Beevor

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Dan Woren?

no change as it wouldn't improve things

What character would you cut from Why Nations Fail?

Not that kind of book

Any additional comments?

Padded out

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1 person found this helpful