Why Nations Fail

Daron Acemoglu

this livin book is  about the huge differences in incomes and standards of g that separate the rich countries

of the world, such as the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, from the poor, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and South Asia. As we write this preface, North Africa and the Middle East have been shaken by the “Arab Spring”  started by the so-called Jasmine Revolution, which was initially ignited by public outrage over the self-immolation of a street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, on December 17, 2010. By January 14, 2011,  President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled Tunisia since 1987, had stepped down, but far from  abating, the revolutionary fervor against the rule of privileged elites in Tunisia was getting stronger and had already spread to the rest of the Middle East. Hosni Mubarak, who had ruled  Egypt  with a tight grip for almost thirty years, was ousted on February 11, 2011. The fates  of  the   regimes  in  Bahrain,  Libya,  Syria,  and  Yemen  are  unknown as we complete this preface.