Political Competition, Innovation and Growth in the History of Asian Civilizations

Do political decentralization and inter-state competition favor innovation and growth? There has long been a lively debate surrounding this question, going back to David Hume and Immanuel Kant. This book is a new attempt to test its veracity. The existing literature tends to assume that the beneficial effects of inter-state competition have been confined to European history. By contrast, China, India and the Islamic Middle East are regarded as inherently imperial and overcentralized. However, these civilizations have not always been unified politically. In their history, there have been long spells of decentralized rule or inter-state competition. The same is true for Japan. If the Hume-Kant hypothesis is correct, it should also apply to those periods. This volume analyses the qualitative and quantitative evidence.Bernholz, Peter is the author of 'Political Competition, Innovation and Growth in the History of Asian Civilizations', published 2005 under ISBN 9781843769194 and ISBN 1843769190.