A must holiday reading for leaders and candidates

A must holiday reading for leaders and candidates

By Marites Dañguilan Vitug

“Why Nations Fail” is a hefty book of more than 500 pages and is heavy to carry around. But what it says is simple enough to be summarized in a few sentences.

Here goes:

Countries that prosper, generally, have “inclusive” economic institutions, meaning, they “enforce property rights, create a level playing field, and encourage investments in new technologies and skills.” These go in tandem with “inclusive” political institutions—those that “distribute political power widely in a pluralistic manner and are able to achieve some amount of political centralization so as to establish law and order.”

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