E08 — Barriers to Industrialization: Absolutism and Fragmentation

Why did some nations miss the wave of industrialization? In this episode of Why Nations Fail — A Deep Dive into Acemoglu & Robinson’s Theory, we explore Chapter 8, focusing on the institutional barriers that prevented many countries from harnessing the power of the Industrial Revolution. The authors examine how absolutist regimes — like those in the Ottoman Empire, Spain, and Russia — blocked progress by suppressing innovation, fearing the disruption of existing power structures. At the same time, countries lacking political centralization, such as Somalia, were unable to provide the basic legal and institutional frameworks needed for growth. Together, these cases highlight how both unchecked power and fragmented governance can lock nations out of prosperity.