[Books review] Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
This is my first book review, I mean ever. I like reading books, it helps me to calm my mind. But I have never tried to write any reviews about any books. The reason I start this series is that I’ve realized sometimes I don’t grasp a book, either right after I finish it or after a while when I’m on another book. Writing reviews about something you read can help you dig down another level about the content, or that’s what I thought because up until now, I haven’t done any.
OK get back to the book of today’s review: Why Nations Fail. It’s one of the most difficult books I have ever read. Why do I say it was difficult? Because it truly was. Not only because of the academic vocabularies set used by the authors, but also the macro question which is also the title of the book.
To find the answer to the problem why there are rich and poor countries, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (from now on refer as the authors) commence the readers’ journey by an example between the two cities whose name are the same as Nogales, but one is located in Arizona the United States whilst the other is not so far to the south into the territory of Mexico. While sharing the same roots, the authors pointed out that there is no geographical or cultural reason for that the inhabitants of the two cities live under extremely different living conditions. To prove that point, the authors even go that far to check every hypothesis possible, but they conclude that none of those can satisfyingly explain the phenomena.
To grasp the core concept of the book, the audience needs to be introduced to a key definition of inclusive and exclusive institutions, including economic and political ones. Why is that so important? Because throughout history, no matters what a country’s economic and political state is, it always falls into those four categories. Not only that but it seems like they always go in pairs in terms of inclusive and exclusive as inclusive economic institutions promote political one and vice versa.
Through the rest of the book, the authors via historical events and facts consolidate their point of view of why there is a gap between countries when there is a difference in their political and economic institutions. An interesting fact is that there is a “fake growth” under extractive political institutions which can confuse people that there is no correlation between the prosperity and development of a country and their policies (e.g. Soviet Union)
I think this an interesting book even though it takes more than 400 pages just to prove a point. We can learn as much how the leaders of countries performed in the past as they do nowadays, and why it is important to understand the root of prosperity or poverty.
Summary:
General: 4/5
Vocabulary: 3/5
Benefit: 4/5
Recommend: Yes, but not for the impatient audience.
Voila my first book review, see you in the next coming.
