Niall Ferguson The: Great Degeneration.pdf

Ferguson organizes his diagnosis around four institutional complexes that, he contends, have historically underpinned Western ascendancy.

Krugman, P. (2013, February 28). The Great Degeneration [Book Review]. The New York Review of Books .

Contemporary Political Economy / Western Civilization in Crisis Date: [Current Date] Niall Ferguson The Great Degeneration.pdf

The Decay of the West: An Analysis of Niall Ferguson’s Institutional Diagnosis in The Great Degeneration

Ferguson argues that democratic institutions have shifted from a model of representation and accountability to one of bureaucratic autonomy and debt-financed clientelism. He notes the explosion of “unfunded mandates” (pensions and healthcare) that transfer wealth from the unborn to the living elderly. The core problem is institutional atrophy : political parties have weakened, voter turnout has declined (or become polarized), and the state has become a vehicle for rent-seeking rather than public good. He cites the failure of the U.S. Congress to pass timely budgets as a symptom of this paralysis. The Great Degeneration [Book Review]

Perhaps the most original section, Ferguson argues that the West suffers from hyper-legalism . He points to the exponential growth in the number of laws and regulations (e.g., the U.S. tax code’s millions of words). This “legal inflation” produces two degenerations: first, it makes the law incomprehensible to ordinary citizens, undermining its legitimacy; second, it creates a “lawsuit culture” that paralyzes innovation and risk-taking. The rule of law, once the West’s greatest advantage over autocracies, has become a straightjacket.

Fukuyama, F. (2014). Political Order and Political Decay . Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (For counter-argument on institutional development) He notes the explosion of “unfunded mandates” (pensions

Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community . Simon & Schuster.