In 2011, Intelligence Squared U.S. debated the proposition China does Capitalism better than America, which dealt with the success of state capitalism in what is destined to be the world’s largest economy.

Another remarkable success is Singapore, whose model of authoritarian capitalism strikes many leaders in emerging market countries as more compelling than the democratic kind. These success stories, when viewed against the backdrop of an under-performing India, a stagnant Europe, and a sluggishly growing US, raise broader questions about the effectiveness of democratic governance.

I commend an outstanding new book, The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State, which deals with just these questions.

The book recapitulates the three great revolutions in governance: the nation state, the liberal state, and the welfare state.  It argues that the success of the West has been in its ability to re-invent government, and makes a compelling case that a “fourth revolution” is required to meet the challenges of Asian progress.

Authors John Micklethwait, former editor-in-chief of The Economist, and the new head of Bloomberg News, and Adrian Wooldridge, The Economist’s management editor, make their argument persuasively: you cannot read the description of the China Executive Leadership Academy, where China’s top officials are trained, without being impressed with their prospects and dismayed by our own.

Available here on Amazon.