Una teoria politica della prosperità economica

The resonance of Acemoglu and Robinson’s book Why Nations Fail has been very wide in economics, whereas the impact for political science has been less pronounced. Actually, the book proposes a broad theory of economic growth, but it provides (at least partially) a political explanation for this phenomenon. For these reasons, the book can be read (also) from a political science viewpoint. Its importance for the discipline lies in its focus on political institutional change and the role that political institutions play in shaping economic outputs. By dealing with political institutions and political stability, the book follows an established path of studies in political science, such as Huntington and Fukuyama’s works on political order. This article seeks to reread critically Why Nations Fail from a politological perspective through these lenses. It will be shown how Acemoglu and Robinson’s proposal could further benefit, in terms of conceptual and theoretical clarity as well as explanatory strength, from an integration of its arguments with some politological literature.