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Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty Paperback – September 17, 2013

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Daron Acemoglu (Author)
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James Robinson (Author)
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4.2 out of 5 stars 668 customer reviews
#1 Best Sellerin Comparative Politics
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Crown Business; Reprint edition (September 17, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307719227
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307719225
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (668 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsAn Emancipation Proclamation for Economists Interested in Equality
By Sergei Soares on May 11, 2012
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
To an economist like me, reading Why Nations Fail, by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, is akin to being set free from shackles worn since I began studying. However, first let me say that the book has many and serious shortcomings. Let me talk about these before I get into why this book set me free. Since I am going to strongly criticize aspects of the book, let me make clear that this is one of the best books on economics I have read in a long time.

Several criticisms have been leveled in other reviews against this book: it is simplistic and perhaps overly ambitious, the history is bad, it explains away competing explanations. They are all true.

The book is undoubtedly simplistic. Basically, the authors state that the institutions of a nation or society can be placed on a one dimensional continuum running from "extractive" to "inclusive" and this explains the history of humanity from the neolithic to the present day. A second leitmotif is that the economic and political institutions complement each other and that economically inclusive but politically extractive institutions cannot last for long (as well as the opposite). Finally, since political and economic institutions reinforce each other, they are quite difficult to change, leading to what the authors call "the iron law of oligarchy." Needless to say, this really oversimplifies the analysis of institutions and history. While Acemoglu and Robinson give many, many historical examples to illustrate their thesis, some are more convincing than others. They use a huge mallet to hammer all the facts into their mold, either ignoring or re-interpreting contrary evidence.

I am no historian, but I do know the history of the region in which I live, Latin America, reasonably well.Read more ›
16 Comments 292 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Return To Political Economy
By Ken McCormick VINE VOICE on January 29, 2012
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Why are some nations rich and others poor? The question has occupied economists since Adam Smith wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. As Nobel laureate Robert Lucas said, once you start thinking about that question, "it is hard to think about anything else." Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson have been thinking hard about it, and Why Nations Fail provides their answer.

Their main thesis is "that while economic institutions are critical for determining whether a country is poor or prosperous, it is politics and political institutions that determine what economic institutions a country has" (page 43). That the right economic institutions are vital has long been recognized; what Acemoglu and Robinson do is emphasize the critical role of politics. They argue that an inclusive political system will allow for an inclusive economic system. Such a system provides incentives for people to acquire skills, work hard, save, invest, and, most importantly, innovate. In contrast, an extractive political system exists for the benefit of a narrow elite, and creates an extractive economic system. The masses cannot influence the political system, and have no incentives to exert themselves creating wealth that will be taken from them by the political elites. Extractive economic systems can achieve growth for a short while, but cannot achieve persistent growth. That is because they cannot generate significant technological change and because there will be infighting over the system's spoils.

The authors provide a wealth of historical examples from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. The numerous examples allow the authors to illustrate their ideas with concrete examples.Read more ›
10 Comments 265 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsErudite, ever so meandering, and ultimately inconclusive...
By John P. Jones III TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on February 13, 2012
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I find the topic utterly fascinating: why do some nations prosper, and improve the life of their citizens, and others fail, often disastrously so? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, both academics, propose a model based on the concepts of "extractive" vs. "inclusive" institutions. They attempt to support their thesis by undertaking a very broad review of economic and historical developments in a spectrum of 30 or so countries. They commence, like medical researchers do when they hope to minimize the number of variables, by examining "twins." In the author's case the "twins" are the cities of Nogales, immediately adjacent, in Arizona, and in Sonora. One is relatively prosperous, the other not so. It is a good start, and later in the book, the author uses the two Koreas. In both cases, geography and culture are relatively constant, which seems to bolster their view that it is the "institutions" that govern the lives of the respective citizens that are causative.

However the book can be a bit of a maddening slog in order to find some enjoyable nuggets of information and/or wisdom. For sure, if one establishes a situation in which individuals have incentives to produce they will work harder. So, why is this concept not universally embraced, by corporations and countries? I once set up a "profit-sharing" program for workers in my company; it seemed to change attitudes, improved the operating efficiency and reduce waste. After I left, the owner immediately eliminated it, though he would pontificate on the needs for economic incentives for himself! His outlook was rigid: if he was "sharing" the profits with the workers, he was a loser, and the thought that he might have a slightly smaller percentage of a much bigger pie never entered his mind.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant! Potential to revolutionise economic and political policy.

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. Read more

Published 1 day ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

IT was exactly what I was looking for. Deep analysis of differences in development levels. Highly recommendable

Published 3 days ago by Marcin
4.0 out of 5 starsPos & neg

Full of historical events & kind of redundant.

Published 3 days ago by SR
3.0 out of 5 starsFascinating but a bit flawed

Thought-provoking, fascinating, but incomplete and flawed.
I enjoyed reading this - it's a valuable take on development patterns and offers a wealth of interesting case... Read more

Published 3 days ago by M. Searle
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Please use this boom to teach history in high school!

Published 8 days ago by Austyn Young
1.0 out of 5 starsThe book is misleading, contains numerous inaccuracies.

The book is misleading, contains numerous inaccuracies. Little mention of the role neo-colonialism played in destabilising political institutions and economic policies in emerging... Read more

Published 10 days ago by Ibinabo
5.0 out of 5 starsVery convincing aarguments from two of the best. I guess it should not...

Very convincing aarguments from two of the best. I guess it should not surprise us that failing States are all in the stranglehold of various small elites in power but how this... Read more

Published 10 days ago by Thomas E. Jones
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Required reading.

Published 13 days ago by Gary Able
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Amazing experience reading this book is for anyone

Published 22 days ago by Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 starsRepetitive and wordy

Repetitive and wordy

Published 28 days ago by Tiffany Squiers

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