Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Paperback)

Preface
Why Egyptians fi lled Tahrir Square to bring down Hosni Mubarak
and what it means for our understanding of the causes of
prosperity and poverty

1.
So Close and Yet So Different
Nogales, Arizona, and Nogales, Sonora, have the same people,
culture, and geography. Why is one rich and one poor?

2.
Theories That Don’t Work
Poor countries are poor not because of their geographies or cultures,
or because their leaders do not know which policies will enrich
their citizens

3.
The Making of Prosperity and Poverty
How prosperity and poverty are determined by the incentives
created by institutions, and how politics determines what
institutions a nation has

4.
Small Differences and Critical Junctures:
The Weight of History
How institutions change through political confl ict and how
the past shapes the present

5.
“I’ve Seen the Future, and It Works”:
Growth Under Extractive Institutions
What Stalin, King Shyaam, the Neolithic Revolution, and the
Maya city-states all had in common and how this explains why
China’s current economic growth cannot last

6.
Drifting Apart
How institutions evolve over time, often slowly drifting apart

7.
The Turning Point
How a political revolution in 1688 changed institutions in
England and led to the Industrial Revolution

8.
Not on Our Turf: Barriers to Development
Why the politically powerful in many nations opposed the
Industrial Revolution

9.
Reversing Development
How European colonialism impoverished large parts of the world

10.
The Diffusion of Prosperity
How some parts of the world took different paths to prosperity
from that of Britain

11.
The Virtuous Circle
How institutions that encourage prosperity create positive feedback
loops that prevent the efforts by elites to undermine them

12.
The Vicious Circle
How institutions that create poverty generate negative
feedback loops and endure

13.
Why Nations Fail Today
Institutions, institutions, institutions

14.
Breaking the Mold
How a few countries changed their economic trajectory by
changing their institutions

15.
Understanding Prosperity and Poverty
How the world could have been different and how understanding
this can explain why most attempts to combat poverty have failed

Acknowledgments
Bibliographical Essay and Sources
References
Index