Why Europe and the West? Why Not China

Bibliographic Data

ID14855473
AuthorsDavid S Landes (0000-0003-4477-0173, Emeritus Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts., corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume20
Issue2
Pages3-22
Publication date2006-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic Perspectives (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0895-3309 • E-ISSN: 1944-7965
PublisherAmerican Economic Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1257/jep.20.2.3
OpenAlexW2088359827
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited17

In the history of technological development, why didn't other regions keep up with Europe? This is an important question, as one learns almost as much from failure as from success. The one civilization that was in a position to match and even anticipate the European achievement was China. China had two chances: first, to generate a continuing, self-sustaining process of scientific and technological advance on the basis of its indigenous traditions and achievements; and second, to learn from European science and technology once the foreign “barbarians” entered the Chinese domain in the sixteenth century. China failed both times. What explains the first failure? I stress the role of the market: the fact that enterprise was free in Europe while China lacked a free market and institutionalized property rights; that in Europe innovation worked and paid, while the Chinese state was always stepping in to interfere with private enterprise. As for the second failure, China's cultural triumphalism combined with petty downward tyranny made it a singularly bad learner

China · Civilization · Economics · Economy · Indigenous · Market economy · Political science · Chinese history and philosophy · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Finance

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