The Second Twentieth Century: How the Information Revolution Shapes Business, States, and Nations (Hoover Institution Press Publication) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by Jean-Jacques Rosa (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0817947422

ISBN-10: 0817947426

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Jean-Jacques Rosa offers an analysis of the "grand cycle" in social organization of the twentieth century, showing how the transformation in communication and information technology has led to the downfall of the old political and corporate hierarchies. He explains how today's explosion of freely available information is fueling the democratic free-market revolution and reveals its universal contemporary consequences.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jean-Jacques Rosa is a professor of economics and finance at Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po, Paris) and dean of the MBA Sciences Po Program, which he launched there in 1993. He is a member of the Mont Pélerin Society, the American Economic Association, and the American Finance Association.

Product details

File Size: 3343 KB
Print Length: 390 pages
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press; 1st edition (October 27, 2006)
Publication Date: October 27, 2006
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B002CGRBIY
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,931,592 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #2922 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Business & Money > Economics > Economic History
- #3575 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Computers & Technology > Tech Culture & Computer Literacy > Information Technology
- #6309 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 20th Century

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A reader

Political economy at its best

June 19, 2007

Format: Paperback

In short: this book documents the evolution, during the twentieth century, of the delicate balance between hierarchies and markets, the key premise being that businesses and governments face similar organizational challenges. They have to adapt over time. For instance, large, centralized organizations have truly become obsolete.

The same economic analysis employed by managerial economists to understand firms, multinationals and market structures is used here to understand other organizations, such as states, governments and democracies. In particular, Rosa shows the parallel developments of markets and individual rights.

The Information Revolution plays a crucial role here. Of course, books about the consequences of the Information Age are not new. "The Sovereign Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age" (Davidson and Rees-Mogg, 1999) is just one of several noteworthy predecessors. However, Rosa's book is much more than an economic history book with a technological determinism flavor to it. It uses economic analysis to show how the declining cost of information has affected and continues to affect the optimal sizes of firms and states, and the nature of hierarchies.

This is an excellent read, full of intriguing insights and examples, geared towards the intellectually curious. There is a also fine presentation of a few subjects that will be useful to the average stock market investor: the trend towards downsizing, the decreasing optimal size of companies, and an explanation of the consequences of the M&As vogue (See his chapter 5).

Highly recommended.

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H. E. Frech III

A New View of the 20th Century

August 21, 2007

Format: Paperback

The collapse of socialism and centralization is the most important and surprsing development of the late 20th Century. The more-of-less authoritarian, state-directed form of organizaion was once considered the only modern, practical approach. Now, it seems quaint. Rosa provides a sweeping explanation of this and the the closely-related resurgence of democracy and poliitcal decentralization, based on the transactions costs analysis pioneered by Nobelist Ronald Coase. This analysis is now a staple of applied economics, especially the field of industrial organization. But Rosa's application is new. The idea is simple and powerful: advances in communicating and computing reduced the tranactions costs of producing and governing with smaller decentralized units, relating through the market. Big-picture economic thinking at its best, this book gives the best available explanation of the most important development in the last 50 years. I strongly recommend it.

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