FROM THE WINNERS OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN ECONOMICSOne of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2019One of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2019Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize'This book is more original and exciting than its predecessor.the highly influential Why Nations Fail' Martin Wolf, Financial TimesBy the authors of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, based on decades of research, this powerful new big-picture framework explains how some countries develop towards and provide liberty while others fall to despotism, anarchy or asphyxiating norms - and explains how liberty can thrive despite new threats.Liberty is hardly the 'natural' order of things; usually states have been either too weak to protect individuals or too strong for people to protect themselves from despotism. There is also a happy Western myth that where liberty exists, it's a steady state, arrived at by 'enlightenment'. But liberty emerges only when a delicate and incessant balance is struck between state and society - between elites and citizens.