Acemoglou, Daron, James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: the Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Power.   Athens: Livanis Publishing Organization, 2013. [330 ACE]

“A wonderful and engaging book that answers the question that has puzzled experts for centuries: “Why are some nations rich and others poor: divided by wealth and poverty, health and illness, food and famine?” Is culture, weather or geography at fault? Or, perhaps, ignorance of what the correct policies are?The answer is “no.”  None of these factors is definitive or predestined.  Otherwise, how would one explain why Botswana is one of the fastest growing countries in the world, whilst other African nations such as Zimbabwe, the Congo and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson convincingly argue that political and financial institutions are the foundations for economic success or failure.  Based on fifteen years of innovative research, Acemoglu and Robinson provide extraordinary, historical examples from the Roman Empire, the city-states of the Maya civilization, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States and Africa to establish a new theory of political economy.”

“A fascinating book that answers questions such as:

• China has built an authoritarian growth machine.Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overpower the West?
• Are the good days of the United States numbered?Is the virtuous circle in which the elite gave rise to the power of the United States being impinged by a vicious one that will enrich and empower a small minority?
• What is the most effective way to help billions of people out of the quagmire of poverty?   More humanitarian aid from the wealthy nations of the West?  Or, learning from the breakthrough ideas of Acemoglu and Robinson regarding the inter-relationship between political and financial institutions?”

-From the back cover and inside flap of the book

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