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The Balance of Power: The Race between State and Society

By Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

In contrast to many leading theories, very different types of states and associated state-society relations

emerge and endure under similar circumstances, but with far-reaching consequences for the prosperity,

welfare and security of citizens. Specifically, historical and political dynamics tend to push societies

towards one of four model types of states: an Absent Leviathan, essentially corresponding to a society

without an effective state that can resolve conflicts, coordinate actions or provide public services; a

Paper Leviathan, where the state has the power to repress society in certain domains, but lacks the

capacity to resolve conflicts or provide public services; a Despotic Leviathan, which has the capacity to

both repress and provide public services, but tends to use its capacity much more to repress than to

deal with problems paramount to citizens’ lives and provide public services they do not want or value;

and finally a Shackled Leviathan, which has the capacity to resolve conflicts and provide public services,

but is constantly checked and challenged ---shackled--- by society. It is the Shackled Leviathan that

underpins many dimensions of human progress, including the ability of most people to achieve greater

prosperity and security and live without constant fear of violence, bullying and intimidation from others.

Perhaps paradoxically, we show that the emergence of a capable state as epitomized by the Shackled

Leviathan necessitates not the ability of the state and political actors controlling it to dominate the rest

of society (as many social scientists have argued) but a powerful society to compete against, threaten

and constrain the state. In fact, we argue that the path in which the state and society to gain greater

capacity in a perpetual race with each other, which we call the Red Queen effect, is central to both to

the fundamental contribution of capable states to human met welfare and to the development of an

assertive, mobile and active society.

Finally, we delineate the economic, technological and political factors tend to locate countries in the

“basins of attraction” of different Leviathans, thus influencing whether certain historical early conditions

will take us towards one type or another of state-society relations.