Economic Growth edited by Philippe Aghion and Steve Durlauf. We thank the editors for their patience and Leopoldo Fergusson, Pablo Querubín and Barry Weingast for their helpful suggestions. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Economic Research. ©2004 by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two