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The awarding of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics to a team of scholars who have devoted their research to economic development and inequality, including Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson and Simon Johnson, is an important recognition of the new perspectives these researchers have introduced into the development debate. In their celebrated 2012 book Why Nations Fail, Acemoglu and Robinson demonstrated that the decisive factor in the success or failure of development lies in political and economic institutions.
Particularly, the scholars differentiate between inclusive and extractive institutions: the former promote broad and democratic participation in decision-making, stimulating growth and reducing inequalities; the latter, on the other hand, concentrate power in the hands of a few, hindering progress and amplifying social inequalities. This seemingly simple but incredibly powerful concept has changed our perception of economic development, bringing the importance of political institutions to the centre of the discussion.
In recent decades, it has become increasingly clear that institution-building is a local process, closely linked to the history and peculiarities of each country. As Acemoglu and Robinson point out, economic institutions alone don’t make for a nation's long-term prosperity; it is political institutions, with their degree of inclusiveness, that shape economic ones. When elites, in an attempt to preserve their own interests, oppose reforms that might endanger their power, they end up undermining the country's own development prospects.
Acemoglu and Robinson's work prompted a global debate on the reforms needed to counter growing inequalities and promote sustainable and inclusive development. Creating inclusive institutions is not a process that can be imposed from outside or through preshaped models; rather, it must rise from country-specific historical processes, based on shared, fair and transparent rules. External support can be useful to strengthen these internal processes, but the imposition of prefabricated solutions is often the prelude to failure.
An important aspect concerns the role of international institutions in promoting sustainable development. It is essential to make a framework of common rules effective, promoting collective action to address global challenges and ensure an acceptable level of equity among nations. Climate change, for example, can never be adequately addressed without considering the collective impact of the behaviour of each state and economic system.
Despite the limitations of the international system observed in recent decades, we must recognise that the presence of global institutions and rules is crucial, especially for the most fragile countries and contexts.
At a time when public discourse is polarised around the ‘national interest first’, it is important to remember that international institutions came into being precisely as a response to tragedies arising from conflicts of national interests and the use of force to impose solutions.
This Nobel reminds us, in short, that development is not just a matter of economic investment but depends on the ability of governments and political elites to build an institutional and social system that favours diversity, inclusion and sustainability. It is a highly political and social lesson: the success of a nation depends on the quality of its institutions.
We should add that the success of the world itself cannot be separated from the quality of its collective institutions.