Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail

by Ray Dalio

This revolutionary strengthening of Parliament was heavily influenced by the new Enlightenment thinking about who should have what powers and how governments should work that had spread throughout Europe starting in the late 1600s. That was shaped by the earlier scientific thought of Englishman Francis Bacon (1561–1626). At the core of this new, human-centric philosophy was the idea that society should be based on reason and science and that the government’s power comes from the people, not from God. Debate and skepticism were encouraged. Improvements in basic education (which caused literacy rates to rise), the dissemination of ideas via printed materials (the first encyclopedias and dictionaries were printed en masse at this time), and a growing number of transnational elites (who were well-read and cultivated cross-border contacts) created a new and wider “public sphere” of political and social thought. The key thinkers during this time produced ideas and concepts that are still important in the Western world.