Friday, January 20, 2012

Colonial Advantages

I have long believed that former British colonies have thrived more than the former Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch colonies. This article from Defining Ideas starts out to explain this phenomenon.

In the middle the article gets bogged down in the minutia of land use technicalities. The article finally wraps up by concluding that the institutions inherited from Britain have been of great use to former colonies, particularly those in temperate climates.

In my travels I have particularly noted that former Spanish colonies have had difficulty in moving beyond the "developing" stage. Think of Latin America and the Philippine Islands, still struggling with development after all these years.