The socialist left has a vexed relationship with major economists. This is a problem, because it sometimes leaves the Left on the outside of contemporary economic debates. Daron Acemoglu is precisely the sort of economist that the Left should not ignore. Alongside his frequent collaborators Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson, he is a 2024 Nobel laureate in economics. He is also among the world’s most cited economists. His new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, has already received lot of attention, as his recent spat with The Economist shows.

Acemoglu’s work can be summed up in the proposition that institutions matter for economic growth. He identifies two types of institutions. Inclusive political and economic institutions constrain power, protect rights, and broaden access to opportunity, encouraging investment and innovation. Extractive institutions concentrate wealth and authority in a few hands, shutting out most people from political and economic participation. Extractive institutions may generate growth in the short term, but tend to undermine long-term prosperity.

In What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, Acemoglu argues that technological innovation does not automatically produce shared prosperity. Who benefits depends on who controls technology, and how political and economic institutions distribute its gains. This perspective is unlikely to elicit many objections from Jacobin readers. Indeed, the Left’s interest in institutions long predates Acemoglu and Johnson’s intervention. From Nicos Poulantzas and the Analytical Marxists to more recent work by Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno, Marxists have developed considered accounts of how institutions both reflect and shape struggles among classes and social forces. But Acemoglu’s new book is a useful reminder that these questions remain central, and its argument deserves engagement from the Left. Clearly, the idea that institutions matter is not controversial. But what deserves closer scrutiny is the question of how institutions are made, whose power they entrench, and whether they can be remade.