Building Strong Nations

In the face of global challenges and changes - some may even say because of them - one major dilemma looms large for citizens and leaders worldwide: how can we ensure that our countries address these challenges successfully? This book demonstrates that the answer can be found in a better match between the nature of modern bureaucracy and the spirit of modern democracy, as well as by improving methods and ideas for what the author terms 'cleaver governance' and better governability. Moreover, it suggests potential directions for improving governability and public management against the backdrop of the tension between bureaucracy and democracy that has given rise to increasing mistrust of and lack of confidence in public institutions. Building Strong Nations enriches the discussion about moving modern nations forward despite major problems such as the clash of ideologies, the overburdening of and expectations from public administration, and the growing instability in world economics and international relations.

A new and comprehensive look at the reasons behind successful or failed nation building Nation Building presents bold new answers to an age-old question. Why is national integration achieved in some diverse countries, while others are destabilized by political inequality between ethnic groups, contentious politics, or even separatism and ethnic war? Traversing centuries and continents from early nineteenth-century Europe and Asia to Africa from the turn of the twenty-first century to today, Andreas Wimmer delves into the slow-moving forces that encourage political alliances to stretch across ethnic divides and build national unity. Using datasets that cover the entire world and three pairs of case studies, Wimmer’s theory of nation building focuses on slow-moving, generational processes: the spread of civil society organizations, linguistic assimilation, and the states’ capacity to provide public goods. Wimmer contrasts Switzerland and Belgium to demonstrate how the early development of voluntary organizations enhanced nation building; he examines Botswana and Somalia to illustrate how providing public goods can bring diverse political constituencies together; and he shows that the differences between China and Russia indicate how a shared linguistic space may help build political alliances across ethnic boundaries. Wimmer then reveals, based on the statistical analysis of large-scale datasets, that these mechanisms are at work around the world and explain nation building better than competing arguments such as democratic governance or colonial legacies. He also shows that when political alliances crosscut ethnic divides and when most ethnic communities are represented at the highest levels of government, the general populace will identify with the nation and its symbols, further deepening national political integration. Offering a long-term historical perspective and global outlook, Nation Building sheds important new light on the challenges of political integration in diverse countries.

The United Nations (UN) has had much success in helping free territories from the control of colonial powers. When the UN was founded in 1945, parts of Africa and Southeast Asia and many Pacific Islands fell under the category of Non-Self-Governing Territories. By 2005, more than 80 of these territories had become self-governing. Learn more about the progress that has been made, as well as the work that remains to be done, in The Birth of the UN, Decolonization, and Building Strong Nations, one of the titles in The United Nations series.

Indigenous scholars strive to produce research to improve Native communities in meaningful ways. They also recognize that long-lasting change depends on effective leadership. This collection showcases innovative research and leadership practices from diverse nations and tribes in Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. The contributors use storytelling to highlight the distinctive nature of Indigenous leadership, which finds its most powerful expression in embodied concepts such as land, story, ancestors, and elders. These vibrant narratives give a voice to the wives, mothers, and grandmothers who are using their knowledge to mend hearts and minds and to build strong communities.

Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.

René Grotenhuis analyses policies intended to bring stability to fragile states and shows how they ignore the question of what gives people a sense of belonging to a nation-state.