The idea here is that political and economic institutions tend to track together: in most societies, both are either extractive or inclusive. Extractive economic institutions support extractive political institutions because they funnel wealth to elites, which gives the elites more power and lets them further dominate the political system. For example, in the first chapter, the authors explained how Mexico’s extractive economic institutions allowed Carlos Slim to buy the government telecommunications monopoly and become a billionaire. Slim then used his billions to buy political favors and defeat legal challenges that could limit his wealth and power. Thus, extractive economic institutions gave Slim lots of money, which he used to make the political system highly extractive. The same is true in reverse: extractive
political institutions uphold extractive
economic institutions. If the people in power aren’t benefiting from the economic system, they will change it. However, if the majority of the population controls an
inclusive political system, it will make economic institutions more inclusive, too. Simply put, both political and economic institutions impact each other, creating either inclusive or extractive cycles.