Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

摘要

The basic theme of the book is what causes nations to fail where others succeed. The authors argue that the political institutions have a determining impact on the establishment of economic institutions. Basically two types of political institutions can be distinguished: "extractive" institutions in which all power is concentrated in a small group of individuals which exploit the rest of the population to their own benefit and "inclusive" institutions in which power and political rights are much more broadly distributed among the population. They suggest that economic prosperity and growth is not possible in "extractive" political systems, they argue that "inclusiveness" is essential for economic prosperity. The economic and industrial policy, the geographical situation, the culture of the nation and the value systems and natural disasters are not the discriminating factors for the prosperity of the country to the opinion of the authors.