JOHN MICKLETHWAIT

An urgent and informed look at the challenges Britain and world governments will face in a post-Covid-19 world.The Covid crisis has not just highlighted the failures of certain governments, it is accelerating a shift in the balance of power from West to East. After a decade where politics in the US and the UK has been consumed with inward-facing struggles, countries like South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, as well as China, have made extraordinary advances economically, technologically and politically. In this beautifully crafted essay, Micklethwait and Wooldridge explain how we ended up in this mess and explore the possible routes out. If Western governments respond creatively to the crisis, they will have a chance of reversing decades of decline; if they dither and delay while Asia continues to improve, the prospect of a new Eastern-dominated world order will increase. The big question facing the world is whether the West can rise to the challenge as it has before.

Se ha sentido usted alguna vez víctima de los grandes consulting de empresa? ¿Qué opina de ellos? ¿Cuántas veces le han dado gato por liebre? ¿Le han dicho que su futuro depende de términos como "rediseño", busqueda de lo "excelente", el "caos"? ¿Cual de los miles de libros que se editan en el mundo sobre gestion empresarial deberia leer? ¿O deberia usted pasar de todos ellos olimpicamente? ¿Se ha planteado alguna vez hacer un master? ¿Se ha preguntado si merece la pena esa inversion en tiempo y dinero? ¿Ha padecido alguna regulacion de empleo? ¿Es usted de los que sueña con el dia en que le dejen en paz estos teoricos del business y pueda volver a realizar su trabajo sin sobresaltos? Si su respuesta a alguna de estas preguntas es afirmativa deberia leer este libro, el primero en el que se desinfla el pomposo mundo de los teoricos de la nueva gestion empresarial, extraordinario exito en Estados Unidos. Micklethwait y Wooldridge, redactores-jefe del prestigioso semanario The Economist, han investigado durante dos años los principales problemas de direccion de las empresas y las soluciones que en cada caso han aportado los llamados gurus de la economia y los negocios. El resultado es estremecedor, polemico y fascinante.

Este libro pretende explicar de manera clara y amena qué es la empresa o compañía y el papel que ha desempeñado a lo largo de la historia. Se centra sobre todo en los últimos cuatro siglos y en lo que es la joint stock company. No pretende moralizar sobre la labor de la empresa o compañia sino mostrarnos el papel predominante que ha jugado en nuestra sociedad a la hora de vender todo tipo de productos y a la hora de crear riqueza y de su distribucion. Por ello es una de las invenciones sociales que mas influencia ha tenido en el mundo y que al mismo tiempo ha sabido absorber el poder que genera.

Los autores de este crucial ensayo parten de una interesante pregunta: ¿los americanos son conservadores por naturaleza o sólo los son sus políticos? Para responder a esta cuestión se analiza con rigor y amenidad la llamada ''revolucion conservadora'' de los ochenta que culmina con el ascenso de Bush Jr., y la naturaleza de los grupos de poder que han alimentado las distintas corrientes de opinion, hasta llegar a transformar el paradigma social estadounidense.

The definitive portrait of the America that few outsiders understand: the America that votes for George Bush, that supports the death penalty and gun rights, that believes in minimal government and long prison sentences, that pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol.

In The Fourth Revolution, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge ask: what is the state actually for? Their remarkable book describes the three great revolutions in its history, and the fourth which is happening nowIn most of the states of the West, disillusion with government has become endemic. Gridlock in America; anger in much of Europe; cynicism in Britain; decreasing legitimacy everywhere. Most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. But as John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us in this galvanising book, this is a seriously limited view of things. In response to earlier crises in government, there have been three great revolutions, which have brought about in turn the nation-state, the liberal state and the welfare state. In each, Europe and America have set the example. We are now, they argue, in the midst of a fourth revolution in the history of the nation-state, but this time the Western way is in danger of being left behind.The Fourth Revolution brings the crisis into full view and points toward our future. The authors enjoy extraordinary access to influential figures and forces the world over, and the book is a global tour of the innovators. The front lines are in Chinese-oriented Asia, where experiments in state-directed capitalism and authoritarian modernization have ushered in an astonishing period of development. Other emerging nations are producing striking new ideas, from Brazils conditional cash-transfer welfare system to Indias application of mass-production techniques in hospitals. These governments have not by any means got everything right, but they have embraced the spirit of active reform and reinvention which in the past has provided so much of the Wests comparative advantage. The race is not just one of efficiency, but one to see which political values will triumph in the twenty-first century: the liberal values of democracy and freedom or the authoritarian values of command and control. The centre of gravity is shifting quickly, and the stakes could not be higher.JOHN MICKLETHWAIT is the Editor-in-Chief of the Economist; ADRIAN WOOLDRIDGE was its Washington bureau chief until 2009, and now serves as Management Editor and Schumpter columnist. They have written four previous books together: The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea; A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization; The Witchdoctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus; The Right Nation: Why America is Different; and God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World.

As the world becomes more modern, it is not becoming more secular. Instead, on the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging. As God is Back shows, for better or for worse, faith is on the increase - fuelled by an American-style model of personal, customer-driven, aggressively marketed religion. Shining a light on this huge, hidden world of faith, from Californian megachurches to exorcisms in Sao Paulo, from Chinas aspirant middle-class Christians to mosques in Nigeria, this book shows that if you want to understand the modern world, you cannot afford to ignore God - whether you believe in Him or not.

The Right Nation is the definitive portrait of the America that few outsiders understand: the America that votes for George Bush, that supports the death penalty and gun rights, that believes in minimal government and long prison sentences, that pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol. America, argue John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, award winning journalists at The Economist, has always been a conservative country; but over the past 50 years it has built up a radical conservative movement unlike any other country. The authors tell the story of how these radicals took over the Republican Party, and they deconstruct the Bush White House, examining the many influences from neo-conservatism to sun belt entrepreneurialism. This quest takes the authors from young churchgoers in Colorado Springs to gay gun clubs in Massachusetts to black supporters of school vouchers in Milwaukee. And they drive to the heart of a question that is relevant to us all: why does America seem so different?

La palabra globalización corre el peligro de perder su significado, tal es el abuso de utilización de que es objeto. Para los triunfadores de Wall Street es sinónimo de modernidad; para los intelectuales europeos equivale a americanizacion de la cultura; para los nacionalistas, a la castracion de sus paises. Sea como sea, el fenomeno que subyace al termino esta reordenando el mundo: creando nuevas clases sociales, empleos diferentes, inimaginables niveles de bienestar y, en ocasiones, una pobreza extrema. Este libro es el primer estudio exhaustivo de la gran revolucion de nuestro tiempo y de como afectara a nuestro futuro.Sus autores, los corresponsales de The Economist John Micklethwait y Adrian Wooldridge, afrontan el reto de traducir los diversos aspectos de la globalizacion a una terminologia comprensible y humanizada, dando sentido a un vocablo abstracto con ejemplos concretos tomados de la realidad inmediata. Lejos de reducir la sociedad globalizada a una mera clasificacion de ganadores y perdedores, la enfocan como el producto de una concepcion fundamental y moderna de la libertad, cuyo ritmo de crecimiento esta unido a la expansion de los derechos democraticos. el resultado es una rica sintesis de casos particulares, analisis y argumentos que constituye un alegato solido y audaz a favor de los beneficios de este fenomeno economico, social y politico que todos invocan pero que nadie se atreve a definir.

En la mayor parte de los estados de Occidente la desafección al gobierno se ha vuelto endemica. Parece que casi todos estamos resignados a que nada vaya a cambiar, y ello es preocupante. En respuesta a anteriores crisis de gobierno, ha habido tres grandes revoluciones, que a su vez han traido consigo el Estado-nacion, el Estado liberal y el Estado del bienestar. En cada una de ellas, Europa y Estados Unidos han marcado el ejemplo a seguir. Ahora estamos en medio de una cuarta revolucion en la historia del Estado-nacion, pero esta vez el modelo occidental corre el peligro de ser arrinconado. La cuarta revolucion encara la crisis en que estamos inmersos y mira hacia el futuro, haciendo un recorrido global de los estados y figuras mas innovadores. En primera linea esta el sistema asiatico de raiz china, cuyos experimentos con un capitalismo dirigido por el Estado y una modernizacion autoritaria han desembocado en un increible periodo de desarrollo. Otras naciones emergentes estan produciendo sorprendentes ideas nuevas, desde el programa de Brasil de transferencias condicionadas de renta al intento de la India de aplicar tecnicas de produccion en masa en los hospitales. Eso no significa en absoluto que en esos gobiernos todo vaya bien, pero lo cierto es que han adoptado el espiri

A Future Perfect is the first comprehensive examination of the most important revolution of our timeglobalizationand how it will continue to change our lives. Do businesses benefit from going global? Are we creating winner-take-all societies? Will globalization seal the triumph of junk culture? What will happen to individual careers? Gathering evidence worldwide, from the shantytowns of So Paolo to the boardrooms of General Electric, from the troubled Russia-Estonia border to the booming San Fernando Valley sex industry, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge deliver an illuminating tour of the global economy and a fascinating assessment of its potential impact.

From the acclaimed authors of A Future Perfect comes the untold story of how the company became the worlds most powerful institution.Like all groundbreaking books, The Company fills a hole we didnt know existed, revealing that we cannot make sense of the past four hundred years until we place that seemingly humble Victorian innovation, the joint-stock company, in the center of the frame. With their trademark authority and wit, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge reveal the company to be one of historys great catalysts, for good and for ill, a mighty engine for sucking in, recombining, and pumping out money, goods, people, and culture to every corner of the globe. What other earthly invention has the power to grow to any size, and to live to any age? What else could have given us both the stock market and the British Empire? The company man, the company town, and company time? Disneyfication and McDonaldsization, to say nothing of Coca-colonialism? Through its many mutations, the company has always incited controversy, and governments have always fought to rein it in. Today, though Marx may spin in his grave and anarchists riot in the streets, the company exercises an unparalleled influence on the globe, and understanding what this creature is and where it comes from has never been a more pressing matter. To the rescue come these acclaimed authors, with a short volume of truly vast range and insight.