In very broad terms, Acemoglu and Robinson divide different nations’ responses to the Industrial Revolution into four main categories. First, some nations (like France and Japan) built inclusive institutions through revolutions. Second, other nations (like the US and Australia) had
no institutions on the eve of the Industrial Revolution, so they built inclusive ones from the ground up. Third, most monarchies and empires refused to build inclusive institutions because they were absolutist. And finally, some nations—especially in Africa—couldn’t build inclusive institutions because they lacked state centralization. However, while the authors’ analysis explains the lay of the land in the 1800s and early 1900s, one crucial question remains. Namely: why haven’t more countries built inclusive institutions since the 1800s? This is the subject of the next two chapters.