trajectory, culminating in the Industrial Revolution.8 In their terms, England was the first country to move to having 'inclusive' or 'pluralistic' rather than 'extractive' political institutions. Note that other West European societies – for instance, Spain – failed to do this. As a result, the outcomes of European colonization in North and South America were radically different. The English exported inclusive institutions; the Spaniards were content to superimpose their extractive ones on top of those they took over from the Aztecs and Incas.
Niall Ferguson's "The Great Degeneration" discusses the evolution of political institutions in England, which transitioned to inclusive and pluralistic systems that fostered development. This shift was pivotal, leading England to become the first nation to embrace such structures, contrasting starkly with Spain and other West European societies that maintained extractive institutions. Ferguson argues that this divergence significantly influenced the historical outcomes of European colonization in the Americas.
In North and South...
