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The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies and the Fate of Liberty, the latest book by Daron Acemoglu, a professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and James Robinson, a professor at the Harris School for Public Policy at the University of Chicago, is a goldmine of insights. What is state capacity? It is the ability of a state to achieve its objectives. That simple. Such simplicity is the recurring theme of the book. The suggestion is not that the authors avoid the complexities of the subject they explore, but rather that they have sufficient mastery of it to put their ideas forward in the most straightforward manner.

James Robinson es un economista y politólogo británico que actualmente es docente en la Escuela de Política de Harris, en la Universidad de Chicago. También dio clases en la Universidad de Harvard y en universidades de California. Se ha especializado en estudiar por qué hay ciertos países que logran el desarrollo y crecimiento económico y otros no, esto sobre todo en América Latina y África. Precisamente en el 2012 fue coautor del libro Por qué fracasan los países, en el cual explica que son las instituciones públicas las responsables.

“Getting to Denmark” is a widely used metaphor for the task of transforming countries into prosperous, stable, well-governed, law-abiding, democratic and free societies. In their latest book, MIT’s Daron Acemoglu and the University of Chicago’s James Robinson, authors of the highly influential Why Nations Fail, provide a framework in which to address the question of how to get there. Their simple answer is: it is hard. Their deep answer is: “Liberty originates from a delicate balance of power between state and society.”