num_pages: 560
description: 'A must-read. Acemoglu and Robinson are intellectual heavyweights of the first rank . . . erudite and fascinating' Paul Collier Guardian on Why Nations FailBy 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 anarchy or asphyxiating norms- and explains how liberty can thrive despite new threats.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 liberty exists it's a steady state arrived at by 'enlightenment'. But liberty emerges only when a delicate and incessant balance is struck between state and society - between elites and citizens. This struggle becomes self-reinforcing inducing both state and society to develop a richer array of capacities thus affecting the peacefulness of societies the success of economies and how people experience their daily lives.Explaining this new framework through compelling stories from around the world in history and from today - and through a single diagram on which the development of any state can be plotted - this masterpiece helps us understand the past and present and analyse the future.'An intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve' Martin Wolf Financial Times on Why Nations Fail
language: English
title: The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty
publisher: Penguin