Rise and Decline of Nations

The years since World War II have seen rapid shifts in the relative positions of different countries and regions. Leading political economist Mancur Olson offers a new and compelling theory to explain these shifts in fortune and then tests his theory against evidence from many periods of history and many parts of the world."e;[T]his elegant, readable book. . . sets out to explain why economies succumb to the 'British disease,' the kind of stagnation and demoralization that is now sweeping Europe and North America. . . . A convincing book that could make a big difference in the way we think about modern economic problems."e;-Peter Passell, The New York Times Book Review"e;Schumpeter and Keynes would have hailed the insights Olson gives into the sicknesses of the modern mixed economy."e;-Paul A. Samuelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"e;One of the really important books in social science of the past half-century."e;-Scott Gordon, The Canadian Journal of Economics"e;The thesis of this brilliant book is that the longer a society enjoys political stability, the more likely it is to develop powerful special-interest lobbies that in turn make it less efficient economically."e;-Charles Peters, The Washington Monthly"e;Remarkable. The fundamental ideas are simple, yet they provide insight into a wide array of social and historical issues. . . . The Rise and Decline of Nations promises to be a subject of productive interdisciplinary argument for years to come."e;-Robert O. Keohane, Journal of Economic Literature"e;I urgently recommend it to all economists and to a great many non-economists."e;-Gordon Tullock, Public Choice"e;Olson's theory is illuminating and there is no doubt that The Rise and Decline of Nations will exert much influence on ideas and politics for many decades to come."e;-Pierre Lemieux, ReasonCo-winner of the 1983 American Political Science Association's Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book on U.S. national policy