The Chinese, by contrast, were never able to solve the problem of the bad emperor.PART ONE Before the State 1 THE NECESSITY OF POLITICSThe third wave of democratization and contemporary anxieties about the future of contemporary liberal democracy how both the Left and the Right entertain fantasies about the abolition of government how contemporary developing countries represent the fulfillment of these fantasies how we take institutions for granted but in fact have no idea where they come fromDuring the forty-year period from 1970 to 2010, there was an enormous upsurge in the number of democracies around the world. The checks on state authority provided by rule of law and accountability serve to reduce the variance in governmental performance: they constrain the best governments, but they also prevent bad ones from spiraling out of control. Political systems need to be able to endure changing external conditions and changing leaders. Under the right conditions, a strong authoritarian system can produce extremely effective government. But at other times rule of law and accountability are necessary to preserve good government. Congress cannot bring itself to deal with pressing problems like entitlements due to the influence of lobbyists and interest groups.

Sometimes, they can get in the way of good, effective government, as when an Indian state is unable to make a decision on a major infrastructure project due to litigation and public protests, or when the U.S. The rule of law and political accountability are desirable in their own right. Understanding the complex historical circumstances under which institutions were originally created can help us see why their transfer and imitation are difficult even under modern circumstances. Political order, state building, society, democracy and state powers.I hope that this overview is useful, both as a way to share ideas and as a way to recommend the book itself.ĭue to the large volume of citations, here’s a table of contents: Table of Contents The categories below are not strict, and some quotes can fall into multiple categories.

The core idea, to me, is that political order arises by historical chance, but depends on multiple factors, including geography, neighboring states, the rise of certain ideas and religions. Obviously, reading the whole book is recommended (as well as the 2nd volume about political decay), but the quotes below capture some of the core ideas of the book. I decided to group them roughly by topic and publish them. Their topics vary a lot, from state building, free markets, the role of religion, tribal societies and curious historical anecdotes. While reading, I was highlighting some interesting sentences and ideas. I recently finished reading “The Origins of Political Order” by Francis Fukuyama.

The origins of the political order