30 Quotes by Daron Acemoğlu

The only way of achieving durable liberty is to . . . forge the balance necessary for building a Shackled Leviathan. True liberty can flourish neither without a state nor under the yoke of a Despotic Leviathan. But there is no universal way of building a Shackled Leviathan . . . Every country’s prospects are molded by its unique history, the types of coalitions and compromises that are possible, and the exact balance of power between state and society.

History is full of examples of revolutions and radical movements replacing one tranny with another, in a pattern that the German sociologist Robert Michels dubbed the iron law of oligarchy, a particularly pernicious form of the vicious circle.

...poor countries are poor because those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose. To understand this, you have to go beyond economics and expert advice on the best thing to do and, instead, study how decisions actually get made, who gets to make them, and why those people decide to do what they do.

A América do Norte tornou-se mais próspera precisamente porque adotou com entusiasmo as tecnologias e os progressos da Revolução Industrial. (…) A desigualdade no mundo atual é, em grande medida, uma consequência da desigual difusão e adoção das tecnologias.

Under the Song dynasty, between 960 and 1279, China led the world in many technological innovatons. The Chinese invented clocks, the compass, gunpowder, paper and paper money, porcelein and the blast furnaces to make cast iron before Europe did. They independently developed spinning wheels and waterpower at more or less the same time that these merged at the other end of Eurosia.

A oposição à prensa teve consequências óbvias para a literacia, a educação e o êxito económico. (…) Os livros difundem ideias e tornam muito mais difícil controlar a população. Algumas dessas ideias podem ser maneiras novas e valiosas de aumentar o crescimento económico, mas outras podem ser subversivas e contestar o status quo político e social.

The historical account we have presented so far indicates that any approach based on historical determinism—based on geography, culture, or even other historical factors—is inadequate. Small differences and contingency are not just part of our theory; they are part of the shape of history.

A abolição do comércio de escravos, em vez de fazer cessar a escravatura em África, levou simplesmente a uma reafectação dos escravos. Acresce que muitas das instituições políticas que o comércio de escravos tinha criado nos dois séculos anteriores se mantiveram inalteradas e os padrões de comportamento também persistiram.

Central planning was just not good at replacing what the great eighteenth-century economist Adam Smith called the “invisible hand” of the market. When the plan was formulated in tons of steel sheet, the sheet was made too heavy. When it was formulated in terms of area of steel sheet, the sheet was made too thin. When the plan for chandeliers was made in tons, they were so heavy, they could hardly hang from ceilings.