CONCEPT
The Narrow Corridor
Acemoglu and Robinson's 2019 framework for liberty as an unstable equilibrium between state capacity and societal power — and the warning that AI's asymmetric empowerment of states and corporations threatens the balance the corridor requires.
The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty (2019) presents liberty as neither the absence of state power nor the abundance of state power, but as a dynamic equilibrium between a capable state and an organized society strong enough to constrain it. Too little state capacity yields the absent Leviathan — lawlessness, predation by private power. Too much state capacity uncontested by society yields the despotic Leviathan — tyranny. The corridor between them is narrow, entry is historically rare, and maintenance requires continuous effort from both sides. AI, Acemoglu and Robinson argue, threatens to force societies out of the corridor by strengthening state and corporate surveillance capacity while weakening the societal organization that would balance it.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The corridor framework refines the inclusive-extractive distinction by adding a temporal and dynamic dimension. Inclusive institutions are not a stable endpoint but an ongoing achievement. They require societal capacity — unions, press,