Don’t political scientists study those questions? Social capital and trust, rule of law, comparative analysis of institutions are some things I know social scie

Don’t political scientists study those questions? Social capital and trust, rule of law, comparative analysis of institutions are some things I know social scientists study. Anthropologists probably avoid analyzing the causality between culture and national success for the same reasons historians de-emphasize it. It’s an impossible dimension to tease out. Countries don’t exist in cultural silos untethered from history, geography, and foreign relations. If anything the first is the flawed approach. The models that come out of it frequently fail to capture the complexity of reality. And that’s why so many data informed policy interventions fail. And on the topic of applied social science. I don’t think attributing success to culture would even be useful because a culture in one place (or time) can be successful, but would be disastrous in other contexts. On a personal level I would be distrustful of any attempts of the government to optimize culture. Culture is not the domain of Caesar.