Mitch Rayburn’s Reviews > Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty > Status Update

Apparently, the Industrial Revolution played a major role in determining the success of the West, particularly of the English relative to others. However, it is only a result of the real game-changer (i.e., inclusive institutions) which emerged from historical contingency, especially how institutions interacted with critical junctures of history. The question is, what can countries like the Philippines learn from thi

Re: Drifting Apart

Chapter prvided pictres of d usual trajectory of extractive institutions. They initially prompt economic growth which d ruler will tend to exploit eventually. Elements include unsustainable growth, infighting, and downfall with Venice, Jericho, Maya, and Roman Civilizations as examples. They are quite convincing. Prosperous countries, interestingly, started like this as well but drifted away from

I've been imagining the Philippines while reading this book. And, so far, in this chapter, my takeaway is that our current state is the result of the interplay of institutions and historical factors. WWII is an opening that our country should have seized to develop inclusive institutions. Yet, it was the elite who took over and maintained the extractive institutions of the colonizers which created a 'vicious circle.'

There is a contingent path of history - historical epochs depend on the dynamics that happen between and among institutions. The prosperous countries of modern times had some critical historical wins that allowed them to prosper.

Our country had been under several colonizers. But a critical juncture called WW2 happened. Yet, we still live under the same terms. There were political struggles that we lost apparently

It's been said that critical junctures are major events that shake the developments of nations. Together with small contextual differences, they cumulate and serve as anvil where the shape of nation will be created.

Last 2020, the world has been shaken by COVID-19 pandemic. Undoubtedly, that was a critical juncture. I wonder how that event dictated the patterns of the development of nations now.