Session #30 - Why Nations Thrive, Conquer… or Fail?

“Countries fail when extractive institutions fail to protect property rights and provide incentives for investment.”
― Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson - Why Nations Fail

“Ultimate explanations for broad patterns of history must be sought in environmental differences.”
― Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs, and Steel

“If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference.”
― David Landes - The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
― Karl Marx - Capital: Critique of Political Economy

Session in english! Also available on consciouspass.com for Karma Points.

Why do some nations become rich, powerful and technologically dominant, while others stagnate, collapse or become colonized?
This session is inspired by sometimes contradicting ideas and hypotheses from:

• Why Nations Fail — by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
• The Wealth and Poverty of Nations — by David Landes
• Guns, Germs, and Steel — by Jared Diamond
• Materialist interpretations of history from Karl Marx
• Spain in front of Europe - ideas from Gustavo Bueno on empire and civilization.

You do NOT need to have read any of the books.
The goal is not literary analysis, but philosophical confrontation between ideas. Of course, if any of the books is familiar to you or you like history, don't miss the session!

We want to put into conflict some of the strongest explanations in history, economics and philosophy about the main drivers behind the success and failures of nations. Is it geography? resources? institutions? culture/ religion? colonial dynamics? class emancipation? just luck?

Introduction of guests (15 minutes)
We start with a short introduction of the topic and of the guests

• Which main driver do you think has the most influence on the outcome for a nation?

Questions (1 hour and 45 minutes)

1. Why did Europe industrialize before regions closer to Equator line? -
2. Can geography permanently trap nations?
3. If geography is destiny, how do we explain: North vs South Korea, or US vs Mexico?
4. Why did industrial capitalism emerge specifically in Protestant Northern Europe?
5. What is more important, “social trust”, or natural resources?
6. Is corruption cultural before institutional?
7. Can there be more extractive empires and more generative empires?
8. Was the Spanish Empire uniquely oppressive, or is it judged under Anglo-Protestant standards?
9. Why did Spanish America produce large mestizo populations while British colonies often remained more segregated?
10. Did the British Empire produce prosperity because of institutions — or because Britain industrialized first?
11. Why did Britain industrialize before Spain despite Spain’s enormous imperial wealth and institutional solidity?
12. Did empires help to civilize conquered nations, or mainly extract wealth and keep populations poor?
13. Were the Spanish as extractive as the British, Dutch, Portuguese or Belgians? Which European institutions promoted slavery and elimination of local populations and which fought against it?
14. Did capitalism require colonial oppression and slavery to emerge?
15. Or was colonial expansion itself a consequence of unequal development?
16. Are institutions genuine structures of cooperation, or masks for underlying economic power?
17. Did European powers become rich because they were more advanced — or become advanced because they extracted more?
18. If socialist states rejected colonial capitalism, why did many become authoritarian and economically stagnant?
19. Were socialist systems create what Acemoglu would call “extractive institutions”?
20. Is the United States more a generative empire, or more an extractive empire?

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RSVP: Please confirm your attendance here on Meetup OR consciouspass.com (get Karma Points for assisting!). In both cases, yield your space to another person in the waiting list.
We welcome donations from 1.000 HUF (min 400 HUF) to keep the costs of the meetup.
If you order food, or alcohol-free wines, you dont need to donate for the group. Thank you!