ClippingKK

the German sociologist Robert Michels called it the iron law of oligarchy. The internal logic of oligarchies, and in fact of all hierarchical organizations, is that, argued Michels, they will reproduce themselves not only when the same group is in power, but even when an entirely new group takes control. What Michels did not anticipate perhaps was an echo of Karl Marx’s remark that history repeats itself—the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.

sustained economic growth requires innovation, and innovation cannot be decoupled from creative destruction, which replaces the old with the new in the economic realm and also destabilizes established power relations in politics. Because elites dominating extractive institutions fear creative destruction, they will resist it, and any growth that germinates under extractive institutions will be ultimately short lived.

是玄宗皇帝就发现，自己的手下大臣们每天都在各项会议上争吵不休，每个人都在一脸诚恳地力图证明，自己是最忠于皇帝，忠于帝国，忠于百姓的，而对方是祸国殃民的奸臣。我们这些忠臣为国为民百死不辞，不惜与那些奸臣小人们斗争到底。那些主张维护现有制度的保守派在这样的争吵和攻讦中，往往会占据优势，成为主流舆论口中的忠臣。原因很简单，不大幅改变现有制度，只搞些小打小闹，那么众多现有制度下既得利益者的利益就可以得到最大的保

he set up extractive institutions to cement his power and extract the output the rest of society would produce. But even extractive institutions with central authority concentrated in his hands were an improvement over the situation without any law and order, central authority, or property rights that characterized the Lele society on the other side of the river Kasai. Such lack of order and central authority has been the fate of many African nations in recent decades, partly because the process of political centralization was historically delayed in much of sub-Saharan Africa, but also because the vicious circle of extractive institutions reversed any state centralization that existed, paving the way for state failure.

small differences open up, and then disappear, and then reappear again. However, when a critical juncture arrives, these small differences that have emerged as a result of institutional drift may be the small differences that matter in leading otherwise quite similar societies to diverge radically.

foreign aid is not a very effective means of dealing with the failure of nations around the world today. Far from it. Countries need inclusive economic and political institutions to break out of the cycle of poverty. Foreign aid can typically do little in this respect, and certainly not with the way that it is currently organized.

杨国忠团队找到了造钱成本过高的关键——徭役造钱。唐朝初期以徭役的方式，通过让百姓义务劳动来解决造钱人力成本。但是既然是徭役，就只能由农民兼职完成。兼职意味着不专业，免费义务劳动意味着效率低下。所以唐朝早期铸造货币时，一大堆农民业余时间毫无积极性地干活，等徭役时间满了，任务完成度还差很远。问题在于，百姓服徭役，表面上官府不需要支付他们工资，但政府组织徭役，粮食物资和管理开支都是必需的支出，加上活没完成还得另外招人收尾，实际成本一点不低

While there is no political body in Mexico restricting Carlos Slim’s monopoly, the Sherman and Clayton Acts have been used repeatedly in the United States over the past century to restrict trusts, monopolies, and cartels, and to ensure that markets remain inclusive.