'As enjoyable as it is thought-provoking' Jared Diamond 'This book
is more original and exciting than its predecessor...the highly
influential Why Nations Fail' Martin Wolf, Financial Times By the
authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, based on
decades of research, this powerful new big-picture framework
explains how some countries develop towards and provide liberty
while others fall to despotism or anarchy - and explains how
liberty can thrive. Liberty is hardly the 'natural' order of
things; usually states have been either too weak to protect
individuals or too strong for people to protect themselves from
despotism. There is also a happy Western myth that where freedom
exists, it's a steady state, arrived at by 'enlightenment'. But
this static view is a fantasy, the authors argue; rather, the
corridor to liberty is narrow and stays open only through a
self-reinforcing struggle between state and society - between
elites and citizens. Liberty depends on a delicate balance between
the two. This struggle - which affects peace and prosperity - is
incessant, and its outcome not predetermined. As the authors show,
contrary to some theories, there is no inevitability to how
countries move in and out of the corridor; Europe's political and
economic ascendancy, for example, was not guaranteed. Particular
historical relationships in each country between state and society
affect their political and economic trajectory, and therefore
influence how countries respond to events and shocks. So the future
is up for grabs. With compelling stories from around the world, in
history and from today - and with a single framework through which
the path of any nation can be understood - this masterpiece helps
us in the vital task of understanding the past and present, and
analysing the future. For today the road to freedom is becoming
more treacherous, endangering the peace and prosperity that depend
on it - and the opposite of the narrow corridor to liberty is the
road to ruin. 'This brilliant and insightful book could not be more
timely. Across the world countries are wrestling with the tension
between state and society. Populism of both Left and Right offers
glib and dangerous answers. By contrast, Acemoglu and Robinson show
that the narrow corridor to liberty depends on combining a strong
capable state with a strong civic society. Not one or the other -
both. This is the route to prosperity for all - but it is as they
say "no easy feat"' Sir Michael Barber, author of How to Run a
Government 'In this highly original and gratifying fresco, Daron
Acemoglu and James Robinson take us on a journey through
civilizations, time and locations. Their narrow corridor depicts
the constant and often unstable struggle of society to keep the
Leviathan in check and of the Leviathan to weaken the cage of
norms. A remarkable achievement that only they could pull off and
that seems destined to repeat the stellar performance of Why
Nations Fail' Jean Tirole, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2014
'Society and state need each other. Applying a global wealth of
historical detail to a simple analytic framework, Acemoglu and
Robinson build a powerful argument against the current opposing
fashions of totalitarianism and the stateless society' Sir Paul
Collier, author of The Bottom Billion 'The Narrow Corridor takes us
on a fascinating journey, across continents and through human
history, to discover the critical ingredient of liberty. It finds
that it's up to each of us: that ingredient is our own commitments,
as citizens, to support democratic values. In these times, there
can be no more important message - nor any more important book'
George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001
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