In the year 1000, the economy of the Middle East was
at least as advanced as that of Europe. But by 1800, the
region had fallen dramatically behind--in living
standards, technology, and economic institutions. In
short, the Middle East had failed to modernize
economically as the West surged ahead. What caused this
long divergence? And why does the Middle East remain
drastically underdeveloped compared to the West? In
''The Long Divergence,'' one of the world's leading
experts on Islamic economic institutions and the economy
of the Middle East provides a new answer to these
long-debated questions. Timur Kuran argues that what
slowed the economic development of the Middle East was
not colonialism or geography, still less Muslim
attitudes or some incompatibility between Islam and
capitalism. Rather, starting around the tenth century,
Islamic legal institutions, which had benefitted the
Middle Eastern economy in the early centuries of Islam,
began to act as a drag on development by slowing or
blocking the emergence of central features of modern
economic life--including private capital accumulation,
corporations, large-scale production, and impersonal
exchange. By the nineteenth century, modern economic
institutions began to be transplanted to the Middle
East, but its economy has not caught up. And there is no
quick fix today. Low trust, rampant corruption, and weak
civil societies--all characteristic of the region's
economies today and all legacies of its economic
history--will take generations to overcome.''The Long
Divergence'' opens up a frank and honest debate on a
crucial issue that even some of the most ardent
secularists in the Muslim world have hesitated to
discuss. |
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