The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty

In this book, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson examine why liberal democracy is difficult to develop and sustain. Building on their earlier work Why Nations Fail, they present a new theory about liberty and its achievement, drawing on evidence from current events and world history. The authors argue that liberty is not a natural state. Throughout most of history and in most places, the strong have dominated the weak. Liberty emerges only when a precise balance exists between state and society—neither too weak to protect individuals nor too strong to enable despotism. Contrary to Western assumptions that political liberty is a durable achievement reached through enlightenment, the authors contend this view is mistaken. Instead, the corridor to liberty is narrow and remains open only through ongoing struggle between state and society. The book draws examples from the American Civil Rights Movement, European history, the Zapotec civilization around 500 BCE, and Lagos's anti-corruption efforts to illustrate how societies achieve and maintain liberty. It also examines Chinese imperial history, Pacific colonialism, India's caste system, Saudi Arabia's restrictive norms, and Latin American and African nations to show how countries can lose liberty and the feedback loops that make it harder to regain. The authors warn that today's destabilization threatens the corridor to liberty, with consequences extending beyond political freedom to the prosperity and safety that depend on it.