Really interesting read, I found it especially so living in a less developed nation, able to witness and relate to the ‘extractive’ political and economic institutions discussed.

My main criticism of the book is that it’s simply too long, the same themes and arguments are repeated over and over again. It was also a shame after all the case study examples that very little attention was given to what I found was the most interesting part of the work, being how the theory can be applied to current day events and the economic development of China. It’s very easy to make your case in hindsight - I would have liked some concrete projections to actually prove the theory.