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…
State failure takes many forms, from the collapse of central authority à la Somalia to the subversion of democracy in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Assessing why and how states fail is only half of the story, however. More important is pinpointing why they recover. Based on fieldwork in over 40 countries, Why States Recover incorporates first-hand interviews with leadership to disaggregate various s…