Why Nations Fail: The Origins Of Power, Prosperity, And Poverty (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
This book argues that nations fail for three basic reasons (I'm paraphrasing here):1) Lack of central control2) An economic system that extracts property (including labor) from people and transfers it to elites3) A political system that protects/perpetuates these elites.Current and historical events are used to support this hypothesis, although they cannot prove it. Politics and economics are social sciences, after all.Trying to show that nations have failed over time due to one of more of these three things ended up feeling repetitive after a while as various examples of extractive policies were summarized and presented as the cause of societal failure. Yep, here's another case. And another case. And.... I can't say I found any great insights in this argument. Much of it seems obvious and indisputable. Without central control even the most enlightened policies cannot be enforced. (A policy that prohibits slavery, for example, can be enacted, but if it can't be enforced, slavery will still exist.) Elites, once established, tend to protect themselves, and extractive societies tend to remain extractive, even after a revolution. (For an excellent fictional presentation of this idea, read George Orwell's Animal Farm.) On the other hand, inclusive societies resist becoming extractive. (The evidence presented for this seemed inconclusive and unconvincing to me.)They cited examples of bad policies and good policies around the world, but seemed to imply that the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, and Western Europe had passed some kind of threshold that almost ensured they would continue as inclusive societies, ignoring evidence such as increased wealth and income disparity as possible indicators that this is not necessarily the case.The argument also could have come up with a far more generalized conclusion. A principle, if you will, or perhaps a definition. A human society, whether it is a tribe, a kingdom, or a nation, is its people. All of its people. It is not just the monarch, or the nobility, or some economic or ideological elite. It is everyone. A society with free people is a free society. A society with educated people is an enlightened society. A society in which people can benefit from what they produce is a productive society. One in which people are encouraged to create and innovate will be a creative and innovative society. The people of any nation are potentially its greatest asset. Nations that realize this will succeed. Those that do not will fail.Sorry.... Kind of got of on a tangent, there. This book is worth reading. It may not be overly insightful, but it is thought provoking. I recommend it. Notable libro que analiza la experiencias de fracaso y desarrollo para distintas sociedades y países, recorriendo experiencia históricas en distintas geografías a través de un análisis económico y político. Los autores lograron un trabajo interesante y que está relatado de forma muy amena, lo que permite ir descubriendo su tesis a través de múltiples ejemplos y análisis de situaciones. Esta tesis se basa en diferenciar entre sociedades con estructuras políticas y económicas de tipo extractivas de las de tipo inclusivo. Las primeras están orientadas mas que a promover el desarrollo de los integrantes, a extraer riqueza de sus miembros consagrando condiciones que atentan contra la generación de condiciones que permiten y estimulen el progreso y el desarrollo de las personas. Con interesantes ejemplos, los autores presentan las dinámicas de las instituciones extractivas y sus efectos de largo plazo. Los autores además analizan los casos de las sociedad que pudieron desarrollar estructuras inclusivas, tratando de responder la pregunta de cuales fueron las condiciones que permitieron este surgimiento. La relación entre sistema político y economía es tratando son bastante detalle. Es particularmente interesante el análisis de la historia inglesa y su desarrollo desde las revolución gloriosa (1688) hacia delante. Para los interesados en el tema, definitivamente recomendable.
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