The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

by Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson

Overview

From the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, a crucial new big-picture framework that answers the question of how liberty flourishes in some states but falls to authoritarianism or anarchy in others—and explains how it can continue to thrive despite new threats.

Liberty is hardly the "natural" order of things. In most places and at most times, the strong have dominated the weak and human freedom has been quashed by force or by customs and norms. Either states have been too weak to protect individuals from these threats or states have been too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. Liberty emerges only when a delicate and precarious balance is struck between state and society.

There is a happy Western myth that political liberty is a durable construct, a steady state, arrived at by a process of "enlightenment." This static view is a fantasy, the authors argue; rather, the space to attain and maintain liberty stays open only via a fundamental and incessant struggle between state and society. The power of state institutions and the elites that control them has never gone uncontested in a free society. In fact, the capacity to contest them is the definition of liberty. State institutions have to evolve continuously as the nature of conflicts and needs of the society change, and thus society's ability to keep state and rulers accountable must intensify in tandem with the capabilities of the state. This struggle between state and society becomes self-reinforcing, inducing both to develop a richer array of capacities just to keep moving forward along the corridor. Yet this struggle also underscores the fragile nature of liberty. It is built on a delicate balance between state and society, between economic, political and social elites and citizens, between institutions and norms. One side of the balance gets too strong, and as it has often happened in history, liberty begins to wane. Liberty depends on the vigilant mobilization of society. But it also needs state institutions to continuously reinvent themselves in order to meet new economic and social challenges that can easily close the space liberty needs to survive.

Today we are in the midst of a time of wrenching destabilization. We need liberty more than ever, and yet the corridor to liberty is getting narrower and more treacherous. The danger on the horizon is not "just" the loss of our political freedom, however grim that is in itself; it is also to the prosperity and safety that critically depend on liberty. The opposite of the corridor of liberty is the road to ruin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735224384
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

Daron Acemoglu is the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. In 2005 he received the John Bates Clark Medal awarded to economists under forty judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.

James A. Robinson, a political scientist and an economist, is one of 8 current University Professors at University of Chicago. Focused on Latin America and Africa, he is currently conducting research in Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Haiti and in Colombia where he has taught for many years during the summer at the University of the Andes in Bogotá.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

Preface xiii

Chapter 1 How Does History End? 1

Chapter 2 The Red Queen 33

Chapter 3 Will to Power 74

Chapter 4 Economics Outside The Corridor 97

Chapter 5 Allegory of Good Government 126

Chapter 6 The European Scissors 152

Chapter 7 Mandate of Heaven 201

Chapter 8 Broken Red Queen 237

Chapter 9 Devil in the Details 266

Chapter 10 What's the Matter with Ferguson? 304

Chapter 11 The Paper Leviathan 338

Chapter 12 Wahhab's Children 370

Chapter 13 Red Queen Out of Control 390

Chapter 14 Into the Corridor 427

Chapter 15 Living with the Leviathan 464

Acknowledgments 497

Bibliographic Essay 499

Sources for Maps 516

References 517

Index 541

Editorial Reviews

★ 2019-06-30
A wide-ranging survey of the conditions of liberty required to steer the world away from the Hobbesian war of each against all.

Why do nations fail? So Acemoglu and Robinson, economists at MIT and the University of Chicago respectively, asked in their 2012 collaboration, Why Nations Fail. Their answer is complex, but it falls largely on the absence or failure of democratic institutions. In this continuation of their previous book, they examine how liberty works: It is not "natural," not widespread, "is rare in history and is rare today," and is a fairly recent phenomenon that balances the competing demands of state and society while being reinforced by that balance. For instance, the Athenian constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes "were helpful for strengthening the political power of Athenian citizens while also battling the cage of norms"—that cage of norms being the informal body of customs supplanted by state institutions. Those norms in turn "constrained what the state could do and how far state building could go," providing their own set of checks. Though somewhat fluid in its definition, liberty, as Acemoglu and Robinson show, is expressed differently under various "leviathans," to extend the Hobbesian critique. The American Leviathan, for example, does not contend properly with inequality and racial oppression, two enemies of liberty, while the "Paper Leviathan" is a bureaucratic machine favoring the privileged class, serving as both a political and economic brake on development and yielding "fear, violence, and dominance for most of its citizens." So it is with China, a "Despotic Leviathan" that commands the economy and coerces political conformity. The authors trace a link between democratic states and what they call "Shackled Leviathans," the beast in restraints being the best of all possible scenarios. Though the argument is a little jargon-y, it is, as with the authors' previous books, provocative and intuitively correct.

An endlessly rewarding book full of takeaways, including the thought that the best societies protect everyone's rights.

Kirkus Reviews

One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019
One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2019
Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize

"Why is it so difficult to develop and sustain liberal democracy? The best recent work on this subject comes from a remarkable pair of scholars, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. In their latest book, The Narrow Corridor, they have answered this question with great insight." -Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post

“What explains the rise and fall of democracy and dictatorship? . . . [Acemoglu and Robinson] offer a provocative framework for analyzing our current moment of democratic crisis. . . . A powerful starting point for understanding the many perils facing aspirations for democracy and liberty today. . . helpfully recalibrates our American tendency to collapse debates over freedom into a binary clash between the narrow liberty of ‘free markets’ on the one hand, and the economic and political freedoms provided by social-democratic ‘big government’ on the other.” —The Washington Post

“Crucially and rightly, the book does not see freedom as merely the absence of state oppression . . . This book is more original and exciting than its predecessor. It has gone beyond the focus on institutions to one on how a state really works.” —Martin Wolf, Financial Times

“Fantastic.” —Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

“A work of staggering ambition—aiming to explain why liberty has or has not existed at every moment in time in every geography in the world… It is chock full of delightful detours and brilliant nuggets... Smart and timely.” —Newsweek

“A well-written and argued treatise. . . . indispensable reading.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Provocative and intuitively correct. An endlessly rewarding book.” —Kirkus (starred review)
 
“The Narrow Corridor takes us on a fascinating journey, across continents and through human history, to discover the critical ingredient of liberty. In these times, there can be no more important search—nor any more important book.” —George Akerlof, Nobel laureate in economics, 2001
 
“Liberty does not come easily. Many populations suffer from ineffective governments and are stuck in a cage of norms and traditions. Others are subdued by a despotic Leviathan. In this highly original and gratifying fresco, Daron Acemoglu and Jim Robinson take us on a journey through civilizations across time and space. A remarkable achievement that only they could pull off and that seems destined to repeat the stellar performance of Why Nations Fail.” —Jean Tirole, Toulouse School of Economics, Nobel laureate in economics, 2014
 
“With gripping examples of civilizations that thrived or failed, Acemoglu and Robinson provide an exhilarating analysis of the critical balance needed between state and society. The Narrow Corridor is destined to be the landmark book that maps the future of freedom for any serious policymaker, scholar, or citizen.” —Erik Brynjolfsson, coauthor of The Second Machine Age
 
“One of the biggest paradoxes of political history is the trend, over the last 10,000 years, away from small tribes and toward the development of the strong centralized states that allow societies of millions to function. But—how can a powerful state be reconciled with liberty for its citizens? This great book provides an answer to this fundamental dilemma. You will find it as enjoyable as it is thought-provoking.” —Jared Diamond, professor of geography at UCLA and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
 
“How should we view the current challenges facing our democracies? This brilliant, timely book offers a simple, powerful framework for assessing alternative forms of social governance. The analysis is a reminder that it takes vigilance to maintain a proper balance between the state and society—to stay in the ‘narrow corridor’—and avoid falling into either statelessness or dictatorship.” —Bengt Holmstrom, Nobel laureate in economics, 2016
 
“Two of the world’s best social scientists have written a magisterial book of immense insight and learning, a true tour de force. From its rich historical study of the delicate balance between state and society it draws a chilling conclusion every thinking person should be aware of: Liberty is as rare as it is fragile, wedged uneasily between tyranny and anarchy.” —Joel Mokyr, author of A Culture of Growth
 
“Another outstanding, insightful book by Acemoglu and Robinson on the importance and difficulty of getting and maintaining a successful democratic state. Packed with examples and analysis, it is a pleasure to read.” —Peter Diamond, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2010
 

Praise for Why Nations Fail
 
“Bracing, garrulous, wildly ambitious and ultimately hopeful. It may, in fact, be a bit of a masterpiece.” —The Washington Post

“Why Nations Fail is a splendid piece of scholarship and a showcase of economic rigor.” —The Wall Street Journal

“A brilliant book.” —Bloomberg
 
“This is an intellectually rich book that develops an important thesis with verve. It should be widely read.” —Financial Times

“Why Nations Fail is a truly awesome book.” —Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

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