Summary Of ' Why Nations Fail '

Jared Diamond is a world renowned scientist, author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and currently a geography professor at UCLA. Of his six books published, we will be looking at the last chapter of his fourth book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. In this book Diamond utilizes the comparative method to find resemblance in past societal collapses with our current society. In the chapter entitled, "The World as Polder: What Does it Mean to Us Today," Diamond points out that there are indeed many parallels between past and present societies and that our modern day society is currently on a path of self destruction , through examples such as globalization and the interdependency of each country.

In this essay it will explore and discuss in particular, the key initial drivers, major changes in its structure over its life, the reasons caused its demise, the social impact of its demised including internally and externally, and the lessons learned for all factors mentioned above.

In “The end s of the world as we know them” article Jared Diamond looks at the collapse of several historical societies and the factors that caused their collapse. The factors are:

Africa’s persistent poverty interrogates the continent’s past through institutions, government, demography, economics, colonialism, and the impact of the trading. The colonial era affected the variety of Africa’s historical development for it was quite the game changer since it put a halt to the continuous drain of scarce labor and paved the way for the expansion of land concentrated forms of agriculture, and engaging smallholders, estates, and communal farms. The establishment of the colonial rule over the African interior reinforced African commodity growth in export. The colonial control facilitated the construction induced significant inflows of European

This critical thinking research paper will scrutinize and analyze the whys and wherefores of the United States failures on trying to avert or stop what was a calculated and surprised Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor, and at the same time will try to bring to light some lessons from such of a catastrophic event. It is obvious that in term of gathering, examination, and management of intelligence, the United States was not in its best moments. Even though the painful lessons learned from the Pearl Harbor attack are not and will never be 100% effective to prevent another surprise attack, they will most certainly provide the military and civilian decision-makers with a valuable contribution to as stated above prevent another attack of such nature and devastation as well as to diminish the number of fatalities.

AIPA 2: UNDERSTANDING ACTORS, INTERESTS & POWER Institutions  Basic level – states exist to provide (1) defence and (2) social order  this requires the presence of a functioning economy.  State not only produces, consumes and redistributes; it’s also the main source and enforcer of “rules of games”.  “Rules of games” are institutions  institutional quality is related to economic performance.  Evidence: No country has gotten rich with bad institutions. Politics  Politics is the process of creating new institutions. Existing institutions create a constraint on this process.  Political processes can be analysed in terms of Actors involved in the processes, their interests and their relative power (AIP).  Actors: Political,

Colonization created the system of slave trade, in order to help build the economic foundations of established colonies. However, doing so leaves the victims of this trade with a legacy of limited potential. For instance, past colonization has influenced disproportionate distributions of income in South Africa; the lowest on the continent. “Colonialism has left South Africa with a legacy of migrant labor, particularly among workers in the gold and diamond mine…” As a result, it guarantees that the majority of the black African population is stricken with poverty in contrast with the history of wealth and

For those who do not know much about the Soviet Union, or those intrigued by the almighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the history of the collapse of the Soviet Union is extremely well documented in Stephen Kotkin's Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000. This relatively short book provides great insight into the downfall of the Soviet Union, as well as to how it could potentially have sustained longer than it did by the Soviet elite. A dramatic shift occurred in the Soviet Union between 1970 and 2000; numerous events and modifications occurred to pave the way for a long and slow decay, as opposed to a rapid and fervent eruption of a crumble that many may have expected. Kotkin provides the readers with a

A few of my colleagues have already touched upon Lech Walesa's quote that "one can change a political system overnight, but to change an economic system takes years." If by far one thing is sure that is that a political system can be changed through coups, revolutions and elections. However, an economic system cannot be changed that easily and in order for it to take place a few factors such as time – sometimes entire generations, patience and functional government institution establishments are necessary.

Colonialism is a feature of European expansion that took control of territory and people across the world starting in the 16th century. The last wave of colonialism was in Africa during the late nineteenth century, and these African colonies did not gain independence until the end of World War II. Decolonization was followed by years of economic, political, and social instability that made living conditions worse for the individuals in society. In this era of globalization, the economic strength of Western powers has created a new type of imperialism over the developing nations. A growing inequality gap between rich and poor countries has resulted in lower living standards in areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where a majority of the

Those nations have failed because they fall into a cycle that has been repeated over and over, yet man refused to take heed. In the book The Fourth Turning,William Strauss and Niel Howe discovered that nations go through four cycles the first one compromising of an era of strengthening institutions and weakening individualism, a second one of spiritual upheaval, the third era is one of strengthening

This paper was prepared for GD530 Economics and the International System, taught by Professor Snow

In the Acemeglu, Johnson and Robinson article, “Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long Term Growth”, the authors emphasize how institutions are the main determinant of economic development because stronger institutions allow for more growth in education, security, and health. To observe whether strong institutions determine economic growth it is important to mention the characteristics of a strong institution that allows for fast growth. Strong institutions are able to enforce property rights, a fair judiciary, efficient bureaucracies, intellectual property rights, corporation government bankruptcy laws, and democracy (e.g. “(Lecture 13)”). Going in depth

Why Nations Fail takes an in depth look into why some countries flourish and become rich powerful nations while other countries are left in or reduced to poverty. Throughout this book review I will discuss major arguments and theories used by the authors and how they directly impact international development, keeping in mind that nations are only as strong as their political and economical systems.

The United Nations is widely regarded and respected as the most powerful institution that promotes international cooperation and human rights action. In theory, actions implemented by and within the United Nations are based on the mutual global goal of protecting international human rights and preventing human sufferings. These actions are constituted through three main mechanisms: the Treaty-based system, the Human Rights Council, and Security Council and Humanitarian Interventions, with the level of confrontation and seriousness in each mechanism increases respectively. While aimed to serve the mutual goal of protecting human rights over the world and have shown some successes, in a world of sovereignty, actions when implemented are in fact grounded by the national interests of each state, including embracing its national sovereignty, concreting its strategic relationships with other states, and enhancing its reputation in the international community. This paper will analyze the successes and failures of each of the three mechanisms of the United Nations regime, through which it aims to prove that when it comes to actions, states focus more on their national, and in some cases, regional interests than on the mutual goal of strengthening human rights throughout the world, thus diminishing the legitimacy of the whole United Nations system.