4 ms·
Not the best or deepest account, but for the modern reader who can't spare time on Aristotle and a gamut of old beards [1] Acemoglu and Robinson's account is cl
by nonrandomstring 4y ago
Not the best or deepest account, but for the modern reader who can't
spare time on Aristotle and a gamut of old beards [1] Acemoglu and
Robinson's account is clear and interesting reading [2].
In the case of Lebanon, the story is that it's ethnic/religious
diversity is too much for stability, it being constantly open to
interference from its neighbours and super-powers playing proxy war
games.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_philosophers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_philosophers
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Nations_Fail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Nations_Fail
- jeffreygoesto 4y agoThank you for the links, especially the second! It made me shiver because I think we're increasingly tilting towards the extractive model...
- suzzer99 4y agoPlenty of places with high ethnic/religious diversity have thrived: Singapore, Istanbul, New York City, (increasingly) the capitals of Western Europe. Teotihuacan, the largest pyramid complex outside of Egypt, was a multi-cultural city where different religions, languages and ethnicities lived side by side for 1000 years. It can be done.
- bergenty 4y agoPretty much all of the Roman Empire.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago> Plenty of places with high ethnic/religious diversity have thrived: What you say is true but besides the point. There's no argument to be made against ethnic/religious diversity. But there is a problem with foreign interference that stokes ethnic tension. My own London is perhaps the most successful multi-cultural population in the world. We don't have RPG attacks on schools because we don't have superpowers spending millions on manipulating and arming the Hoxton Crips against the Hounslow Massive. And there's the important difference.
- vineyardmike 4y ago1. Singapore has an extremely controlling government and lots of accounts of an ethnic non-citizen “underclass” being exploited. 2. Turkey as a whole is questionable. They have rampant ethnic violence even if Istanbul is doing ok. 3. The US and Western Europe arent turkey but again, have various degrees of ethnic tension being played out. Whether that’s trump and all he stands for or France’s burka bans. They’re also generally more powerful so less susceptible to meddling.
- bergenty 4y agoEvery place has an underclass that gets exploited including homogenous countries. What’s your point?