Why great nations and civilizations like Incas, Aztecs, Roman, Chinese, India etc disintegrated and why few states lying on the periphery of European peninsula were able to colonize the known world? This question has pestered a large number of philosophers (Aristotle, Montesquieu etc), historians (like Edward Gibbon) etc? The modern era historians are also trying their best to answer this intractable puzzle. 'Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty' is one such attempt. It tries to explain the dichotomy of success and failure on the basis of inclusive and extractive institutions accompanied by creative destruction. This theory tends to be very simplistic and does not explain the success of Chinese model of growth very convincingly. It also does not explain why Roman Republic or Greece were great civilization along with Achaemenids and all these civilizations persisted for more than 200 years. Why the republic states of Greece eventually disintegrated despite having the first manifestation of Democracy? Why Vrijji confederacy failed against the extractive state of Magadha?
Niall Fergusson's Civilization offers more conclusive answers to this great puzzle. These two books should be read together so that one can understand the holistic picture of the question and the answer.
Recommended (7/10)
No comments:
Post a Comment