(2007-04-24) Nation Building Vs Phases Of Order

Arnold Kling examines the work of Douglass North, JohnJosephWallis, and Barry R Weingast ("NWW" for them as group) and its implications for Nation Building and the War On Iraq. NWW claim that there are three types of societies. Primitive orders are small bands of Hunter Gatherer-s, and they are of little concern here. LimitedAccess orders are societies that provide meaningful political and economic rights only to narrow elites. OpenAccess orders are capitalist democracies (Liberal Democracy) that give political and economic rights to most citizens. NWW argue that limited-access orders are the "natural state:" they are stable, they resist economic progress, and they only rarely make the transition to open-access orders...For NWW, these three types of order are like the three chemical phases of solid, liquid, and gas. That is, they are clearly distinct from one another, and transitions between different forms of order (Phase Change) take place only under special conditions... NWW argue that three conditions are necessary before a transition from a limited-access order to an open-access order is even conceivable... Accordingly, I would say that there is no chance that the United States will succeed in its objective of establishing an open-access order in Iraq. The best we can hope to do is restore Iraq to a natural state, meaning a limited-access order where rights and power are exclusive to certain elites, who will be subject neither to economic nor political competition as we know it. Ugh, that kind of cynical Real Politik seems to have often led to nasty Blow Back for us...