Reith Lecture: does the west’s decline reflect some deterioration in our institutions? (June 2012)

“Institutions … determine modern historical outcomes, more than natural forces like the weather, geography or even the incidence of disease.”

Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard, fellow of Jesus College Oxford, writer, broadcaster.

2012 Reith Lectures, lecture one.

The enlightenment’s greatest champion takes a circuitous canter through history and the importance of institutions. On one hand it seems societies with the right institutions can flourish even when individuals misbehave – and conversely, that the weakening of institutions could now be contributing to the west’s decline.

Ferguson argues that “institutions … determine modern historical outcomes, more than natural forces like the weather, geography or even the incidence of disease.

“Could it be that the economic, social and political difficulties of the Western world today reflect some deterioration in our once world-beating institutions?”

Read the full transcript here: The Human Hive