# Rulers, Religion & Riches Author: [[Jared Rubin]] ## Review The author creates a model describing how rulers stay in power and uses it to help explain some of the factors that allowed England and the Netherlands to grow, while Spain and the Ottoman empire stagnated. Rulers can propagate rule by bargaining with propagating agents who influence the actions and beliefs of the population either through legitimizing the ruler (through religion or economic support) or by coercion. Th ruler will implement rules and laws that benefit these propagating agents in return for their support. He argues that the Islamic and Spanish rulers relied much more heavily on religious legimitacy. The Islamic world was unable to adjust to changes in the economic situation over time, because the religious institutions opposed it. The author goes into great detail on how the Islamic religious institutions opposed interest-bearing loans and the printing press, which were crucial to European development. In contrast to the Islamic world, northwestern European states increasingly relied on economic actors to propagate rulers at the expense of the religious elite. The protestant reformation was important in this process and relied on the printing press for it to spread rapidly. Printing was important to the secular parts of the universities so suppressing it wasn't reasonable. The arguments made throughout the book were focused on processes and knock-on effects. Unlike other books on macro-history, the author didn't try to oversimplify history to fit his narrative and I really appreciated this about the book. There are some things I will have to revisit in the future. For example I am not entirely convinced by his arguments that Islamic finance was inferior, and I would like to understand better why universities were so important even before the printing press. Overall, this book was an eye opener for me as it tied together a few loose threads from my other readings on "The great divergence" and provided a great analytical tool for understanding the incentives and actions of elites and rulers. To be honest, before this book I wasn't even sure what 'elite' meant in historical context. Now I understand it was essentially those people who could influence the beliefs and actions of the population (maybe akin to today's influencers). One thing I am excited about is that his model is complementary to Goldstone's structural demographic theory. In fact it's probably a necessary puzzle piece to understand the process of state breakdown. The model relates to the three necessary conditions of revolution in the SDT: - *inter-elite conflict*: If some elites don't legitimize the ruler, or worse they start legitimizing someone else, then the prevailing ruler has a diminished claim to rule. - *popular discontent*: If the rules implemented by the ruler (in favor existing elite) lead to hardship beyond some threshold then the population will no longer follow the advice of elite who are legitimizing the ruler and the ruler loses his ability to propagate rule. - *fiscal crisis*: If the ruler and the propagating agents are doing a poor job, the state will eventually run into fiscal problems. At this point they need resources from the economic elite who can either increase their influence in policymaking, or can force structural reform. Understanding the connection between the ruler propagation model and SDT can probably also help us understand why some revolutions lead to growth inducing reform and some to violent destruction. ## Key Idea - Rulers propagate rule through propagating agents. Military agents enforce rule, whereas religious and economic agents legitimize rule. Rulers are incentivized to keep their propagating agents happy and will implement rules that favor them. This can hinder growth by blocking trade or technology that threaten elites. Every one is acting according to their incentives and culture does not have to be invoked as a historical explanatory factor. ## Related - [[Structural Demographic Theory]] - [[Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World]] - [[The Dynamic Society]]