It Takes A Long Time To Build A Nation State With Effective Institutions

This is a review of a book on the historical development of national institutions in England and Spain.  It took centuries for each of them to develop a national government and effective institutions.  We attempted to build effective governments in the Mid-East, but we followed the wrong process according to this analysis.  Power must be concentrated at the center in order to build effective institutions.  We expected weak central governments to manage the development of effective institutions.  This argument can also be extended to other nations that are attempting to build a national government with effective institutions.  It takes a long time to complete the job.