The idea of long-term European dominance is characteristic of most evolutionary theories of human culture and society in the nineteenth century. It was commonly believed that there was a natural progression from Antiquity through Feudalism to Capitalism which could not have taken place elsewhere. Today there are many who still believe that this progression was part of a European miracle that underlay the rise to global supremacy of the West. In this short book Jack Goody systematically dismantles this Eurocentric view of the world. He argues that we need to look, not for a European miracle, but rather for a Eurasian miracle that went back to the Urban Revolution of the Bronze Age, that affected the Near East, India and China well before Europe and that was much advanced by the adoption of writing. Under these conditions we find a long-term exchange of information between East and West, and the dominance of one followed by the dominance of the other - in other words, alternation rather than dominance. There were measures during the Renaissance in Europe that made for continuous growth, especially the secularization of learning, but it appears that the period of Western supremacy is now coming to an end and that we are about to experience a further alternation in favour of the East.

Why modern states and economies developed in Europe first, and later in India and China.

Why did modern states and economies develop first in the peripheral and late-coming culture of Europe? This historical puzzle looms behind every study of industrialization and economic development. In his analytical and comparative work Eric Jones sees the economic condition forming where natural environments and political systems meet: Europe's economic rise is explained as a favoured interaction between them, contrasting with the frustrating pattern of their interplay in the Ottoman empire, India and China. For the second edition Professor Jones has added a new introduction and an updated bibliographical guide.

This book undertakes a theoretical and econometric analysis of intense economic growth in selected European countries during the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first. Focusing on the accelerated economic growth that occurred in Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey, this book investigates the determinants and consequences of this “miracle” growth and discusses them in context of growth and development processes observed in European market-type economies after the World War II. Using imperfect knowledge economics (IKE) as a theoretical framework to interpret the empirical results, this book provides a fresh theoretical perspective in comparison with current Neo-classical, Keynesian and institutional paradigms. With this systematic approach, the authors seek to provide a unified methodology for evaluating the phenomenon of intense economic growth that has heretofore been missing from the discipline. Combining diverse theoretical and methodological strategies to provide a holistic understanding of the historical process of economic change, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars of economic growth, econometrics, political economy, and the new institutional economics as well as policymakers.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 1,0, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) (Lehrstuhl für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte der Neuzeit), course: The Great Divergence. History and Legacy of Industrialization in Europe and Asia, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this paper is the discussion of a recent article presented by Joel Mokyr who offered, according to his own words, a new “variant of the European Miracle question”1. The main thesis of his article The Great Synergy: the European Enlightenment as a factor in Modern Economic growth points to the European Enlightenment as being a crucial factor for attaining and establishing modern, i.e. sustainable economic growth in Europe once the British Industrial Revolution had overcome its humble beginnings at the end of the eighteenth century. Mokyr argues that the stability of economic growth which was reached in Europe after 1825 was to a great extent due to a new attitude towards the relation between technology and progress. This new attitude was the result of a development that had its roots in the European Enlightenment where the foundations for a new understanding of science and technology were laid. The outcome of this development was the unique ‘idea of research’ that made scientists and craftsmen cooperate, giving way to a very fruitful convergence of science and technology that helped making sustainable economic growth possible. This evolution mingled with the modification of institutional mechanisms which was a result of the Enlightenment, too. These two trends both formed a ‘Great Synergy’ that finally yielded the ‘European Miracle’. To prove and strengthen his thesis, Mokyr compares the history of European sciences with those practiced in China coming to see that Chinese sciences were confined to and restricted by the Mandarin rulers, thus a situation similar to pre-enlightened Europe. But his comparisons to the Asian continent are limited to the situation in China. It could therefore be telling to have a look at Indian sciences, especially when discovering that India “had a wellestablished scientific and technological tradition of its own long before being subjected to an extended period of European colonial rule”2. Going deeper into Indian history we will see, that on top of that, before the colonization by the British, “traditional knowledge generated large-scale economic productivity for Indians”3. Departing from these considerations, the present paper will put Mokyr’s assumption under inspection examining the Indian history of science and technology. The arising problem is thus twofold, implicating questions that are clearly inter-related with each other and which are touching fields both of science and economy. [...]

This book discusses the transition to a market economy, political democracy and civic society in Poland, the central European country which initiated the process of post-communist transformation sixteen years ago and which is now a member of the European Union. Poland is an instructive case in terms of: ¢ comparative economics; ¢ structural reforms; ¢ institutional build up; ¢ integration in the world economy; ¢ a successful emerging market. For these reasons the book will be a valuable publication which will attract the attention of both researchers and practitioners. The book has been written by an excellent team of researchers with extensive experience of policymaking and comprehensive research output within the field of comparative and development economics and economic policy. It includes macro- and micro-economic analyzes as well as political approaches to the issues under discussion.