What Happened to Liberal Democracy (with Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu)

[upbeat music] Yeah, Goli, that was a fantastic conversation and, you know, I find myself nodding in agreement with almost everything Acemoglu says, but with one caveat.

I- at some point, it would be fun to press a little harder on the role that economics played in this debacle.

I think he acknowledges it, and I think it's consistent with the feedback loop that is described in-

Yeah

... "Why Nations Fail," that, you know, political inclusion feeds economic inclusion, and economic inclusion feeds political-

Yes

... inclusion.

And when you break one of those-

Yeah

... well, that's when nations fail.

[chuckles]

Right.

Because you, you undermine both democracy and the economics that creates broad support for democratic-

That's right

... institutions.

That's right.

And that's what we've seen.

You know, the fact that he's coming back to this issue is not, is not-- a-and in somewhat a more less theoretical, more practical way in his new book, I think is an indication of how existential he views this threat to be.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh, which it clearly is.

But, but not without solutions.

I mean-

Yeah

... w-we can do things to fix it, and they are hard, but we've done hard things in the past as a nation.

We have.