Two concepts will become clear by the time you finish the book: extractive and inclusive policies for the development of nations and societies.

Throughout the book, the author attempts to explain them in detail and with as many examples as possible, attributing the difference in prosperity between nations to political and economic choices.

Whether we like it or not, politics is a field that governs the well-being of a nation. Decisions made at the political level determine a nation’s prosperity and can set the direction in which it heads.

As we will show, poor countries are poor because those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose. To understand this, you have to go beyond economics and expert advice on the best thing to do and, instead, study how decisions actually get made, who gets to make them, and why those people decide to do what they do. This is the study of politics and political processes. Traditionally economics has ignored politics, but understanding politics is crucial for explaining world inequality.

To simplify things, we have:

• Extractive policies are measures designed to extract as many resources as possible, whether raw materials or taxes, from the population without giving anything back in the form of social protections or services (medical, financial, educational, etc.). People end up becoming prisoners of the system.
• Inclusive policies are those aimed at creating prosperity, a set of measures that act as a catalyst for business development, the growth of well-being, and education.

In a scenario dominated by extractive policies, there is generally an authoritarian regime that has no interest in raising the standard of living or providing a functioning education system for its population, as doing so could pull people out of the regime’s sphere of influence.

At the same time, due to the lack of incentives from the government, the population has little motivation to adopt modern ways of increasing productivity, since they cannot enjoy the surplus gains. Those flow straight into the regime’s pockets. As a result, a distinct lack of innovation and adoption can be observed in these regimes. This absence of innovation is something an extractive regime actually welcomes: it changes nothing in the existing chain of extraction and poses no threat to the established order.

During the reign of emperor Tiberius, a man invented unbreakable glass and went to the emperor anticipating that he would get a great reward. He demonstrated his invention, and Tiberius asked him if he had told anyone else about it. When the man ereplied no, Tiberius had the man dragged away and killed, “lest gold be reduced to the value of mud”.

Not everyone saw printing as a desirable innovation. As early as 1485 the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II issued an edict that Muslims were expressly forbidden from printing in Arabic. This rule was further reinforced by Sultan Selim I in 1515. It was not until 1727 that the first printing press was allowed in the Ottoman lands.

In contrast, inclusive policies aim to create opportunities for the population, almost like supporting small entrepreneurs, fostering innovation and giving rise to new sectors and industries that can contribute to the nation’s overall development.

Inclusive policies increase the likelihood of new interest groups and power centers emerging, made up of those who thrive in these new industries and niches. This puts pressure on the existing government or leadership, and it becomes very easy for extractive decisions to follow from the top, as those in power seek to preserve their position and diminish the influence of those who have just gained it through these very inclusive policies.

The book draws on numerous examples from different parts of the world, different time periods, and nations with very different histories, all of which ultimately faced the same problems.

In some cases, extractive policies were imposed by colonizers; in others, by a local authoritarian regime, but their effects have remained visible to this day.

Countries like England and France went through the same struggles and needed a complete overhaul of their governance model before they could adopt inclusive policies.