World's next technology leader will be US, not China – if America can shape up

[Commentary] Innovation drives income growth and determines global military and diplomatic leadership. China lacks the kind of inclusive political institutions like those in the US that promote innovation. But inequality and money's influence on political power threaten American innovation.

The reason to believe that it will be the US, not China, leading the world in innovation and technology for many, many more decades is the resilience of US inclusive institutions. We have been here before, and we have rebounded. Things were much worse during the Gilded Age both in terms of economic inequality and in terms of how totally and unscrupulously the wealthy elite, the so-called robber barons, had come to dominate politics.

[Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson are the co-authors of “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.”]