The three days since the last post have been more of the same: some happy social occasions (with a lot more scheduled for the next two weeks) and the now familiar downs--way too frequent and exhausting trips to the newly tiled and worker-free bathrooms and sleeping more than I would like.  (Sorry about that.  I know that most of my readers would love the freedom to take long, leisurely naps.)  I did e-mail my oncologist to ask whether there is a medication stronger than Imodium, whether if not I just have to resign myself to gulping four or more a day, and whether it might be possible--without too many risks--to take a couple of days off from the chemo to see if my body might regain a little of its previous equilibrium. 

I've had the time to read a long and fascinating book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.  The teacher in me kept thinking that an exam over the book would be incredibly easy to construct: short definitions of ten terms that inform the book:
extractive political systems
extractive economic systems
inclusive political systems
inclusive economic systems
critical junctures
creative destruction
vicious circles
virtuous circles
the iron law of oligarchy
historical contingency.

The book is an exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting) overview of the historical, economic, and political causes of prosperity and poverty throughout time (from the Neolithic Revolution to the present) and throughout space (dozens of countries on every continent).  The argument is, in short, that extractive institutions, where the elite control the state both politically and economically, may create short-term prosperity for the few, but that the prosperity is not sustainable.  (Although the book refuses to make predictions, it clearly suggests that because of the extractive nature of modern Chinese politics and economics, China won't be able to sustain its current economic growth.)  At critical junctures (the three major ones that the authors focus on are the Black Death, the colonization of the Americas and Africa, and the Industrial Revolution, though there are also less dramatic ones), the elite will try to maintain their powers.  They fear creative destruction and thus discourage or forbid innovation, thus damning their states ultimately to failure.  The iron law of oligarchy suggests that in extractive societies, even if one set of elite is displaced, it will normally be replaced by another extractive system.  The authors argue, however, that this "law" isn't like a law in physics; it's a tendency only, and one that may predominate, but that does not always hold true.  Although the book rejects such explanations of poverty as those based on geography (South America had more natural resources than America, yet the U.S. and Canada developed inclusive economic and political systems and hence became more prosperous) and on culture, in favor of historical explanations, the authors also stress that nothing is absolutely determined, that historical contingency can never be underestimated.  The most important and original argument of the book, however, is that inclusive political systems precede inclusive economic systems.  That is, the authors reject the notion that as countries develop economically and move to more inclusive economic systems they will inevitably become more inclusive politically. 

For over two years now, I've read everything on my Kindle.  Despite having loved books as physical objects since I was a kid, I've never really missed the feel of paper, the turning of pages, the dog-eared corners.  This time, however, because the book covered so much ground, for almost the first time, I wanted to flip around in the book, to look back and ahead to see if I couldn't put all the information into a clearer framework.  There are so many details of place and time that I sometimes lost the thread, not of the argument, but of the organizational principle.  I've got a first generation Kindle, and I assume the newer ones are friendlier.  That said, the Kindle remains the best present I've received in a long time.  If anyone from Amazon is reading the blog and would like to offer me a huge paycheck for doing a commercial, I'm open to an offer.