风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and poverty
ABOUT WHY NATIONS FAIL
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.
《为什么国家会失败》精彩而引人入胜，回答了几个世纪以来困扰专家们的问题：为什么一些国家富裕而另一些国家贫穷，在财富和贫困、健康和疾病、食物和饥荒之间存在差异？
是文化、天气、地理吗？ 也许不知道什么是正确的政策？
简单地说，不。 这些因素都不是决定性的或命中注定的。 否则，如何解释博茨瓦纳成为世界上发展最快的国家之一，而津巴布韦、刚果和塞拉利昂等其他非洲国家却深陷贫困和暴力之中？
Daron Acemoglu 和 James Robinson 最终表明，经济成功（或缺乏）的基础是人为的政治和经济制度。 举一个他们引人入胜的例子，韩国是一个非常单一的国家，但朝鲜人民是地球上最贫穷的人之一，而他们在韩国的兄弟姐妹却是最富有的人。 南方打造了一个创造激励、奖励创新并让每个人都能参与经济机会的社会。
由于政府变得对公民和广大人民负责并做出回应，因此刺激的经济成功得以持续。 可悲的是，北方人民已经忍受了几十年的饥荒、政治压迫和截然不同的经济制度——看不到尽头。 韩国之间的差异是由于政治造成了这些完全不同的制度轨迹。
基于十五年的原始研究，阿西莫格鲁和罗宾逊整理了来自罗马帝国、玛雅城邦、中世纪威尼斯、苏联、拉丁美洲、英国、欧洲、美国和非洲的非凡历史证据，建立了一个新理论 与当今重大问题密切相关的政治经济学，包括：
– 中国建立了威权增长机器。 它会继续以如此高的速度增长并压倒西方吗？
– 美国最好的日子过去了吗？ 我们是否正在从一个精英为扩大权力的努力受到抵制的良性循环转变为一个使少数人富裕和赋权的恶性循环？
– 帮助数十亿人摆脱贫困走向繁荣的最有效方式是什么？ 来自西方富裕国家的更多慈善事业？ 或者学习阿西莫格鲁和罗宾逊关于包容性政治和经济制度之间相互作用的突破性想法来之不易的教训？
为什么国家会失败将改变你看待和理解世界的方式。
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