Why Nations Fail

The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson | 4.23 | 31,231 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, George Magnus, and 8 others. See all reviews

Ranked #1 in Economic History, Ranked #1 in Development Economics — see more rankings.

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. less

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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Why Nations Fail from the world's leading experts.

Mark Zuckerberg Founder/FacebookMy next book for A Year of Books is Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson. This book explores the different kinds of social institutions and incentives that nations have applied to encourage prosperity, economic development and elimination of poverty. This is a good complement to our last book, Portfolios of the Poor, which focused on how people live in poverty. This one discusses why poverty exists and how to reduce it. (Source)

Bill Gates CEO/Microsoft"I read two books that raise big, interesting questions about social change and technological progress. I’m planning to write longer reviews of each of these books, but let me flag them for you now. One is Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson.The topic of this book is why some countries have prospered and created great living conditions for their citizens while others have not. This is an important topic, which I care a lot about. The book makes an appealing argument that economic development depends on political institutions... (Source)

Daron Acemoglu In terms of understanding this top inequality, I mentioned the possibility that it might be about politics. How should we think about politics? What are the levers of politics? For that we need a conceptual framework and that’s what this book tries to provide. It’s co-authored with my long-term collaborator and friend Jim Robinson – and it’s not about US or UK or Canadian inequality. It runs through several thousand years of history, and tries to explain how societies work and why, often, they fail to generate prosperity for their citizens. It’s a very political story. (Source)

Simon Johnson It’s one of those books that stretches your mind, so that you come away from it saying, Wow. I didn’t know that. (Source)

Tim Modise Great book, very perceptive. I recommend it to anyone who is open-minded and keen to help build a successful nation that provides support and is home to aspirant youths. 🇿🇦 https://t.co/JVODcQvUxX (Source)

Trevor Ncube @chapendamat1 Why Nations Fail is an amazing book. Enjoy (Source)

George Magnus The role of institutions is really important for societal development. (Source)

Rankings by Category

Why Nations Fail is ranked in the following categories:

#38 in AA
#42 in Business Economics
#38 in Capitalism
#3 in China History
#27 in Current Affairs
#7 in Democracy
#12 in Diplomacy
#8 in Economics
#34 in Geography
#11 in International Business
#6 in International Relations
#84 in Law
#89 in MBA
#2 in Macroeconomics
#3 in Political Science
#28 in Political Theory
#15 in Politics
#26 in Poverty
#28 in Power
#23 in Public
#91 in Social
#30 in Social Sciences
#79 in Sociology
#74 in Thought
#41 in Why
#20 in World
#35 in World History

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