Introduction
Summary of the book The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. Let us start with a brief introduction of the book. Have you ever wondered why some places seem to enjoy freedom and opportunity, while others are trapped in violence, corruption, or rigid traditions? Imagine a long, narrow passageway. On one side of this corridor stands chaos—where weak governments fail to protect citizens and life is ruled by fear. On the other side looms oppressive power—where an all-controlling state crushes its people and snuffs out their voices. The sweet spot for true liberty lies in the delicate space in between, where a strong but accountable government and an active, engaged society keep each other balanced. To enter and remain in this precious corridor, communities must navigate cultural customs, resist destructive leaders, form unlikely coalitions, and constantly push back against threats to their rights. The journey is never straightforward, but understanding these challenges reveals why liberty is rare, fragile, and always in the making.
Chapter 1: Venturing into Ancient Myths to Uncover the Fragile Road Toward Lasting Liberty.
Imagine a time thousands of years ago, long before modern states, smartphones, or even simple things like printing presses. This was the era of ancient Mesopotamia, where human civilization was still finding its footing. Amid fields irrigated by winding rivers and cities guarded by high walls, people sought order and meaning. One of the oldest stories we know from that distant past is the Epic of Gilgamesh, engraved on brittle clay tablets some 4,200 years old. It describes the grand city of Uruk, with its towering temples and bustling markets. Yet, hidden behind this splendor was a dark and brutal truth. Uruk’s mighty king, Gilgamesh, was a figure of immense strength and ambition, but he ruled with fear, cruelty, and shocking violence. His people yearned for safety, dignity, and freedom, yet they found themselves trapped beneath his unpredictable power.
The citizens of Uruk, powerless before their ruler, begged the sky-god Anu for salvation. They wanted protection from the terror stalking their streets and homes. In response, a new hero named Enkidu was created—someone equal in might to Gilgamesh but more in tune with the humbler instincts of ordinary people. At first, the idea seemed promising: if power could be matched with power, then maybe the king’s cruelty could be restrained. Unfortunately, even this bold solution went awry. Gilgamesh and Enkidu bonded over shared adventures and soon joined forces, rather than balancing each other’s influence. Instead of curbing tyranny, they combined their strengths, leaving the people still vulnerable and voiceless. The story revealed a truth: without organized citizen influence to tame a leader, power can grow unchecked, suffocating liberty.
This ancient narrative suggests that genuine freedom is not a natural, effortless state of affairs. Instead, liberty sits in a narrow space—like a tight corridor—between too little state control and too much. On one side looms chaos, where no central authority exists to prevent unending violence and lawlessness. On the other side stands a monstrous, despotic state, bullying citizens and squashing their independence. Finding the right balance is extraordinarily difficult. Just as a delicate seedling needs precise amounts of sunlight and water, a society needs a carefully measured relationship between the power of government and the force of organized citizens. When such a balance is missing, tyranny or anarchy soon takes root, pushing liberty even further out of reach.
Liberty, as the authors Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson describe it, is not just about having choices. It is a condition where people can live without constant fear of violence, where they can decide their paths without expecting cruel punishments for their free decisions. It demands a proper equilibrium, where citizens do not cower beneath oppressive rulers, nor must they fend for themselves in endless conflict. The ancient Gilgamesh story reveals how easily pure might can dominate weaker voices. It is a timeless reminder that freedom grows only when both the governing structures and the people keep each other in check. This delicate balance carves a narrow corridor, a challenging but critical pathway toward the stable liberty we may take for granted today.
Chapter 2: Understanding Why a Powerful State Alone Will Never Deliver Genuine Freedom.
Turn your attention to a more modern era, but one still filled with instability: Nigeria in the 1990s. General Sani Abacha held power over the country, not to nurture its people but to crush rivals and hoard its riches. In Lagos, Nigeria’s sprawling commercial heart, basic services collapsed. People struggled in a landscape of uncollected trash, limited clean water, and unreliable electricity—if any at all. Crime soared as gangs, known as Area Boys, roamed unchallenged. Corpses lay on the streets, and lawlessness haunted the city’s alleys. No one could rely on the government for safety or justice. Without a central authority that cared to protect lives and uphold order, daily existence descended into chaos, far removed from the idea of liberty or human dignity.
Some might think that if a state is too weak or uncaring, the solution must be to give it more power—like building a fortress of government authority to keep everyone in line. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes once imagined a society without rules as a place where life would be nasty, brutish, and short. He believed a gigantic, central authority—he called it the Leviathan—was necessary to maintain peace. Yet, a single towering Leviathan might easily become an oppressor rather than a protector. After all, if a government is all-powerful, what stops it from using its might to harm its citizens instead of serving them?
This puzzle—how to gain the benefits of a strong government without ending up crushed by it—is central to understanding liberty. If the government is too weak, disorder spreads, and people suffer from endless violence. But if it grows too strong, it might turn into a fearsome despot. Hobbes understood that a strong state could end chaotic violence among citizens, but he missed an equally important point: you must also shield society from state tyranny. A strong Leviathan can indeed stop neighbors from constantly attacking each other, yet if it becomes a monster, citizens merely trade one form of fear for another.
True liberty therefore requires something more subtle than simply granting enormous powers to rulers. Instead, we need a delicate interplay between state strength and public influence. Think of it as a constant dance between government authority and civic engagement. If people remain organized, informed, and vocal, they can prevent their rulers from overreaching. They can demand that laws be fair, that services be reliable, and that no one be above the rules. Only in that narrow corridor—where citizens ensure the state neither collapses into weakness nor swells into unchecked might—can real freedom emerge. It is a careful balancing act, and throughout history, few societies have perfected it.
Chapter 3: How Courageous Reforms in Ancient Athens Sparked a Delicate Balance Between Power and People.
Consider Athens in the distant past, an ancient Greek city trying to find stable ground in an uncertain world. For a long while, Athens struggled under a loose system of elite rule, with magistrates called Archons controlling the city’s affairs. These Archons hailed from wealthy, aristocratic families and often squabbled among themselves, triggering occasional coups and unrest. But over time, Athenians began to seek a more stable and just arrangement. They knew writing down laws was a start, but without a central authority to enforce them, mere words on stone would accomplish little. Laws needed to be applied evenly; they needed an impartial and effective backbone. This is where the statesman Solon stepped in, forging an Athenian state with enough strength to enforce the rules and enough flexibility to include ordinary citizens in governance.
Solon was far-sighted. He realized that the city’s well-to-do elites and its common citizens both needed something from the political system. The elites feared losing their influence, while ordinary Athenians were tired of living at the mercy of aristocratic quarrels. Solon’s reforms involved carefully balancing these interests. He reorganized social classes, changing who could hold public office and who could participate in the courts. Ordinary citizens, even those without great wealth, could now step forward and seek justice. This was a revolutionary move. Instead of allowing absolute top-down authority, Solon’s laws encouraged the people to hold officials accountable, opening a channel for constructive tension between state power and social forces.
This relationship is what the authors call the Red Queen effect, inspired by a scene in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. In that story, Alice and the Red Queen run as fast as they can, yet remain in the same spot. Translate this image into political life: the government and the people continually push and pull against each other. Each side tries to gain a small advantage, yet neither can completely dominate the other. This endless competition actually keeps them balanced. The result is a shackled Leviathan, a government strong enough to maintain order and services, but chained by citizen scrutiny and participation. It cannot run amok because society demands fairness and accountability.
With the shackled Leviathan in place, Athens enjoyed a measure of freedom that was rare for its time. The courts applied the law more evenly, and citizens began to trust the legal system. No single person or small group could easily seize total control without encountering resistance. This equilibrium helped Athens flourish not only politically, but also economically and culturally. Of course, it was not perfect. Women, slaves, and foreigners were largely excluded from this arrangement, revealing the limitations of ancient values. Still, Athens demonstrated that it is possible to build a society more free than oppressed. By empowering citizens alongside state authority, Athens found its place—if only briefly—in the narrow corridor toward lasting liberty.
Chapter 4: How Unyielding Cultural Traditions Can Trap Societies in Weakness and Stagnation.
Not every society chooses to move toward a shackled Leviathan. Sometimes, traditions, habits, and deeply ingrained beliefs form a strong cage of norms that keeps people stuck with weak states. When social rules are so rigid that they allow no hierarchy or central coordination, governments struggle to take root. Without a capable central authority, there is no effective justice, no reliable public services, and no firm protection from violence. These societies remain in a condition the authors call the absent Leviathan. They drift, never quite finding the balance that fosters liberty and prosperity. The puzzle is: why do these cages of norms persist, locking entire groups into patterns that prevent them from stepping into the narrow corridor?
A striking example can be found among the Tiv people of rural Nigeria in the early 20th century. British colonial authorities tried to rule the Tiv indirectly, selecting local chiefs who would carry out their policies. But the Tiv had a tradition of strong egalitarian norms: no natural chiefs, no stable class of elites, and deep suspicion toward anyone who gained too much authority. This suspicion was so pervasive that when a cult known as Nyambua arose, it distributed special wands and whisks to detect Tsav—a spiritual substance said to grow in the hearts of power-hungry individuals. These objects conveniently discovered that the colonial-appointed chiefs were corrupt and dangerous. Rather than establishing a stable local government, the British efforts collapsed, blocked by norms that refused to let formal authority flourish.
In such communities, it is not that people do not desire stability or certain forms of prosperity. Rather, they fear being dominated. Their norms have been shaped over generations to guard against anyone attempting to rise above the group. While this can prevent outright despotism, it also prevents the kind of state-building that could offer reliable services, fair courts, and equal opportunities. Without such an authority, the people cannot enter the narrow corridor. They remain forever locked outside, grappling with small-scale disputes and local traditions that maintain equality of powerlessness, rather than equality of empowered participation.
Societies caged by norms face a paradox: their cultural rules protect them from tyranny but also deny them the benefits of a truly effective government. Without a firm structure in place, there is no way to collectively solve big problems or distribute resources fairly. Over time, this leads to a stagnant form of existence where people cannot improve their living conditions on a large scale. The absent Leviathan condition persists, and so does insecurity. The Tiv example shows that communities that are too wary of power may never step inside the corridor, forever lingering outside, unable to strike a healthy balance between state governance and collective influence.
Chapter 5: The Rough and Unpredictable Struggle to Keep Government and Citizens Equally Engaged.
Achieving a shackled Leviathan does not happen overnight or without complications. Even in places that aspire to democracy and freedom, the journey can be tangled and messy. The United States provides a powerful illustration. After gaining independence, the new nation’s first attempt at government, the Articles of Confederation, gave enormous freedom to individual states. Each state could print its own money, and the federal government had little power to coordinate policies. It soon became clear that this model was too loose—no strong center existed to hold it all together. To fix this, the Founding Fathers drafted a new Constitution and a Bill of Rights. These documents created a stronger central authority but also carefully protected individual liberties, allowing citizens a means to control the government’s reach.
Yet, to make this grand compromise a reality, unsavory deals were struck. To keep southern states aligned, slavery was allowed to persist, cruelly denying freedom to millions of Black people. This dark stain on American history reveals that the process of forging a Red Queen dynamic—where the state and society race against each other, keeping both in check—can be deeply flawed. Over time, African Americans faced vicious discrimination, and the legacy of this compromise still haunts the country. Not all voices in the people were equally heard, and not all received the same protections. The Red Queen effect might keep government power in check, but it can fail to ensure everyone shares in the benefits.
This unevenness shows up in modern American life, too. In many poorer neighborhoods, law enforcement can be unreliable and biased, while social services fall short. Residents may face violence and hardship that the state does not adequately address. Studies have shown that trauma runs deep in these communities, revealing how far from ideal the arrangement can be. At the same time, the federal government’s power is often constrained by complex checks and balances that make addressing large-scale issues—like healthcare or infrastructure—difficult. The government turns to private firms to patch the gaps, but private companies have profit motives, not public interest, at their core. As a result, solutions are partial and sometimes fail to reach the most vulnerable.
The United States, despite its longstanding democratic institutions, exemplifies the complexity of the Red Queen effect. The system allows for the correction of abuses by encouraging activism, debate, and public participation, yet it never settles into a perfectly balanced paradise. Instead, it is an ongoing struggle, a never-ending negotiation. Some improvements emerge over time—greater civil rights, extended voting rights, social reforms—yet major problems remain unresolved. Liberty is not a fixed end point but a direction of travel. Achieving and maintaining a place inside the narrow corridor demands continuous effort, moral courage, and the willingness to keep adjusting the delicate balance between strong, reliable governance and a society that will not tolerate oppression.
Chapter 6: The Illusion of Progress Under Oppression and Why Liberty Cannot Grow There.
Consider what happens when a Leviathan grows so powerful that it towers over every aspect of life, leaving no room for public voice. China under Chairman Mao Zedong offers a glaring example of a despotic Leviathan. The state did more than just keep order—it enforced absolute obedience through terror. People lived in constant fear of speaking out or stepping out of line. While the authorities claimed to guide society toward a bright future, they used brutal labor camps, secret policing, and systematic violence to crush dissent. Here, the government functioned, but it functioned as a hammer, smashing any threat to its iron rule. This is not liberty; it is forced submission.
Interestingly, despotic Leviathans can achieve certain forms of progress—at least on the surface. The Chinese Communist Party initiated campaigns to modernize agriculture, industry, and infrastructure. With total control over the economy and the nation’s workforce, it could push forward big projects quickly. Roads, dams, and factories rose from the ground in record time. However, this growth came at a horrific price. Millions suffered in silence, forced into labor camps where physical and mental tortures were described with deceptive euphemisms. The system’s efficiency in building structures and increasing output masked its deep moral corruption and the emptiness of people’s personal freedoms.
Despotic growth, as it might be called, suffers from a critical weakness: it cannot sustain genuine innovation or trust in the long run. Without real security for property rights or an honest legal system, people hesitate to invest time, resources, or creativity. Corruption spreads when no one can hold officials accountable. If the government decides on a whim that a certain business or technology is undesirable, it can crush it instantly. Eventually, the initial surge of infrastructure and productivity hits a ceiling. Without the balancing force of citizens who can demand transparency and fairness, the system’s foundations begin to rot beneath the shiny surface of progress.
The lesson from despotic regimes is that while fear can spur rapid changes, it cannot nurture liberty or enduring prosperity. True liberty involves a stable environment where people know their efforts will not be stolen, their lives not arbitrarily ruined. In a despotic Leviathan, citizens live like guests in their own land, never certain what tomorrow will bring. The narrow corridor to liberty requires not only a state powerful enough to govern but also citizens strong enough to shackle that state. Without those shackles, the government’s immense power becomes a tool of torment, making any true freedom or long-term economic dynamism impossible.
Chapter 7: How Caste Systems and Religious Controls Chain Societies and Distort Power Balances.
Even in societies that hold elections and have large populations engaged in public life, severe obstacles can block the path to the corridor. Consider India, often praised as the world’s largest democracy. Despite electoral freedoms and widespread social movements, India has struggled to slip fully into the corridor of liberty. One critical barrier is the deeply rooted caste system, which assigns people their social status at birth. This rigid hierarchy can predetermine a person’s occupation, social circle, and marriage prospects, leaving scarce opportunity for talent and ambition to rewrite one’s fate. Such a system may not look like violent oppression, yet it firmly restricts social mobility and stifles the balanced interplay needed for true freedom.
The caste system’s norms act like invisible chains. They discourage citizens from challenging the status quo, reduce cooperation between different groups, and limit the state’s ability to function as a truly inclusive force. Even if the government attempts reforms, ingrained prejudices and expectations mean many citizens remain locked in the roles tradition dictates. Economic growth is limited, as potentially brilliant minds are left to sweep streets simply because their ancestors did. With such social fragmentation, it becomes difficult to unite in demanding accountability from leaders. The result is that power does not properly shift between state and society. The Red Queen race never gains momentum, and the shackled Leviathan cannot emerge.
A different but related pattern appears in places like Saudi Arabia, where strict religious interpretations form another kind of cage of norms. There, Islamic scholars, known as ulamas, issue religious rulings under the tight influence of the ruling elites. Rather than offering independent guidance, these religious authorities reinforce what the state desires. Beliefs and traditions, which could have provided moral checks on power, instead become tools to justify whatever the rulers wish. Citizens face severe restrictions on their freedoms, always under the watchful eye of a government-backed moral order. These conditions leave no room for healthy tensions between state and people.
When societies are bound by rigid traditions—be they social hierarchies, religious dictates, or cultural prejudices—it becomes nearly impossible to harmonize the power of the state with the energy of society. Whether the cage of norms takes the form of a caste system or a religious doctrine, the outcome is similar: a lack of fluid negotiation and mutual influence. Without that interplay, the narrow corridor remains elusive. These societies may have rituals, stability in their own way, and even a sense of unity, but not the kind of dynamic balance that fosters liberty. Like a door locked on both sides, these norms prevent the give-and-take that freedom requires.
Chapter 8: Unmasking the Hollow States That Appear Modern but Achieve Very Little.
Sometimes, a state pretends to be modern and functional, complete with fancy official buildings, bureaucratic offices, and countless stamped papers, yet it accomplishes very little. These paper leviathans look like genuine governments but are fragile and ineffective beneath the surface. Argentina provides an illustrative case. Consider a woman named Leticia, who struggles to register for a welfare program designed to help families in need. She follows all the instructions, queues outside the proper office, and waits patiently, only to be sent away time after time. The system does not say no outright, but it never really says yes either. It just stalls, confuses, and fails to deliver any meaningful service.
This weakness is not an accident. Paper leviathans are often legacies of colonial times, when European powers ruled vast territories through minimal staff. They appointed local elites to run things, never fully developing robust institutions. After independence, the pattern lingered: elites kept the upper hand, and ordinary citizens remained with little influence. The government looked real on the outside—there were ministers, departments, and official decrees—but it lacked the muscle to enforce laws impartially or the vision to spur development. Without public pressure and engagement, the state drifted, hollow and sluggish.
Paper leviathans fail not because they are violently oppressive, but because they do not do enough. There is no effective central authority to resolve conflicts, ensure fairness, or inspire confidence. At the same time, society is not strong or united enough to push for major reforms. This creates a lukewarm equilibrium: the government does not crack down hard, so it does not spark rebellions, but it also does not deliver improvements. People slog through a broken system, hoping something will change, yet no one has the leverage to force a transformation into a shackled Leviathan.
In these states, entering the narrow corridor becomes challenging because no one force is strong enough to trigger the balanced tension needed. The government is too weak to lead society out of dysfunction, and the people are too fragmented to demand significant change. The result is a stale environment where mediocre services are the norm, corruption is common, and progress moves at a snail’s pace. Paper leviathans are like stage sets: from a distance, everything seems proper and official, but up close, the structures are flimsy. Without strengthening both governmental capacity and society’s voice, the corridor to liberty remains blocked.
Chapter 9: Breaking In and Slipping Out: How Nations Enter, Exit, or Miss the Corridor of Liberty.
Shifting a society’s position relative to the corridor is complicated. Some nations start under despotic regimes, where state power crushes freedom. Others suffer the opposite problem, living in conditions of nearly absent authority. Still others drag along as paper leviathans, making little headway. However, examples like South Africa show that it is not impossible to move closer to liberty. Under the cruel apartheid system, Black citizens faced systematic oppression, forced off their lands and locked out of economic opportunities. Yet, through organized struggle, alliances, and moral leadership, South Africa managed to dismantle apartheid by the 1990s, stepping cautiously into a more democratic era.
South Africa’s transformation happened because different groups formed coalitions that weakened the hold of elites who benefited from segregation. Black workers, industrialists who disliked the old restrictions, and political activists from the African National Congress banded together. This combined pressure forced reforms and eventually ended apartheid. For absent leviathans, the journey into the corridor requires strengthening the state to provide security and services. For despotic states, it often requires mobilizing society to curb authoritarian excesses. For paper leviathans, both state and society must grow stronger together. No one-size-fits-all solution exists, and even if a nation finds its way in, it can tumble out again if the delicate balance is lost.
Another key factor influencing the corridor’s shape is polarization. Sometimes, instead of a healthy Red Queen race—where society and state keep each other in check—you get intense clashes without compromise. Consider Germany’s Weimar Republic in the early 20th century. The state was democratic, and society was active, but deep divisions festered. Far-left and far-right groups refused to meet in the middle. Elites supported extremist factions to counter rising socialist movements. The result was a breakdown in the political environment that allowed the Nazis to rise, seizing absolute power and shredding what remained of liberty. Polarization turned a balanced struggle into a zero-sum game, pushing Germany out of the corridor and into horror.
The narrow corridor is not a permanent destination. It must be nurtured, protected, and defended every generation. Economic change, technology, social movements, and cultural shifts can widen or narrow that passage. Coalitions might form to push a nation forward, or bitterness and mistrust might tear it apart. Ultimately, whether a society remains inside the corridor depends on the ongoing willingness of its people to engage, resist tyranny, demand accountability, and refuse to let old injustices stand unchallenged. The corridor is narrow because maintaining liberty is never easy. People must remain vigilant, for liberty’s enemies—be they oppressive rulers, crippling traditions, or rising fanatics—can appear at any moment, eager to tip the balance and block the path to freedom.
All about the Book
The Narrow Corridor by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson explores the delicate balance between liberty and tyranny, revealing how societies thrive through strong institutions and the interplay of power dynamics. A must-read for understanding governance.
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson are renowned economists whose insights on political and economic institutions have influenced global governance and socio-economic policies, making their work invaluable for scholars and practitioners alike.
Political Scientists, Economists, Sociologists, Policy Makers, Academics
Reading about history, Studying political theory, Participating in debates, Engaging in social activism, Exploring economic systems
Societal inequality, The role of institutions in governance, Political power dynamics, The balance between liberty and control
The only way to escape the narrow corridor is to have a broad corridor of democracy and inclusiveness.
Bill Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, Joseph Stiglitz
Arthur Ross Book Award, Fernand Braudel Prize, Goldsmith Book Prize
1. Understanding the balance between state and society. #2. Importance of maintaining freedom through constrained governance. #3. Exploration of liberty’s precarious journey within nations. #4. Recognizing the danger of unchecked government power. #5. Learning from historical state-society interactions globally. #6. Identifying crucial elements fostering democratic institutions. #7. Evaluating factors contributing to societal trust in governments. #8. Appreciating the delicate state of political freedoms. #9. Analyzing the consequences of excessive state intervention. #10. Understanding societal resilience against authoritarianism threats. #11. Grasping the role of civil engagement in democracies. #12. Exploring the dynamics of political power distribution. #13. Insights into the balance required for economic freedom. #14. Recognizing the signs of democratic erosion over time. #15. Evaluating the effectiveness of constitutional limitations. #16. Comprehending the historical context of state power growth. #17. Understanding society’s role in checking governmental authority. #18. Analyzing comparative political systems across cultures. #19. Identifying patterns of democratization throughout history. #20. Studying the emergence of political liberties over centuries.
The Narrow Corridor, Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, political economy, democracy and freedom, socioeconomic development, government and institutions, African economic growth, historical analysis of governance, importance of strong states, citizen engagement, power dynamics
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143131011
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