Religion, Political Power, and Economic Growth with Jared Rubin

This discussion thread covers the third of four online discussion assignments in our class, covering Jared Rubin’s book “Rulers, Religion and Riches.”

After you read the book, and watch the presentation videos, you are expected to post an original comment addressing one of the prompts below and (2) comment on one other student’s existing post on the topic.

In doing so, you can pick elaborating on one of the following questions:

1) According to Rubin, how do rulers sustain their rule and where do they derive their political legitimacy from? Why does it matter for economic development what the source of their legitimacy is?

2) Based on the main argument in the book, why did the printing press get adopted in Protestant European areas and how was The Reformation sustained and succeeded?

3) Again, based on the key claims in the book, why did The Ottoman Empire adopt the printing press so late? How did that affect political rule and Ottoman economic progress?

4) Pick one country case of success (Britain or the Dutch Republic) and compare it with one case of failure (Spain or the Ottomans). Walk through the book’s argument using both cases and evaluate how each country was economically and politically affected in that light.