This chapter explains the logic behind the choice of institutions that the book highlights. A liberal order is impossible without the capacity to form organizations able to act on behalf of private constituencies. Apart from providing shared goods, private organizations restrain entities capable of repression, including the state. Hence, a section of the book is devoted to exploring the political effects of Islamic and modern waqfs. Whereas the former played key roles in keeping civil society anemic, the latter is now invigorating civic life. Religious repression has been ubiquitous in the Middle East. In inducing preference and knowledge falsification in broad domains, it conceals doubts about policies promoted in the name of religion. In the process, it impoverishes and distorts public discourse. For these reasons alone, religious freedoms are also essential to liberal governance. Economic freedoms are pivotal because they shape political incentives and capacities. Private property rights, the freedom to invest, and predictable taxation are among the determinants of private political capacities. So are characteristics of the available forms of economic organization. Institutions that limit the scale, longevity, and complexity of Middle Eastern enterprises have reduced the political reach of private economic actors.

At least 18 months before each presidential election, prospective candidates for the highest office in the United States have, since 1972, flocked to the otherwise unsung midwestern state of Iowa. All of these challengers hope to jumpstart their campaigns with a victory in the Iowa Caucus, held on a single frigid winter evening prior to the upcoming November election. It must have taken astonishing foresight and planning for a small state like Iowa to wangle the first-in-the-nation presidential contest, right? On the contrary! The origin of the Iowa Caucus turns out to be a case study in circumstance and happenstance rather than foresight and planning. Furthermore, the subsequent evolution and likely demise of the Iowa Caucus appear to be highly subject to the influence of accidental and unintended consequences.