The last two hundred years has shown much sustained growth in the West¹ to an extent unprecedented in the past. While substantial growth has occurred at various historical points, our current cycle of economic and more importantly² technological growth has shown signs of being inherently self-sustaining ³ in ways unsurpassed throughout history⁴. This brings us a few important questions, all of which can be summed up as a general “why?”

A look at the legal revolution and associated structural and philosophical changes which occurred around the 12th century suggests that the new framework to emerge in the West at this point⁵ created the transitory structure required to shift dominance to the West. In this period we see a complete re-establishment of the political and legal institutions — a transfer of power — and a completely new philosophical view of the world, all these changes leading and supporting a scientific revolution.

To properly analyze this, two perspectives are taken: a comparative approach assessing the Western countries and the Asian and Arabic-Islamic Eastern Countries⁶, in an effort to answer the question “Why not elsewhere?,” and to help understand how such changes significant to technological growth and sustainable economic cycles; and the second approach, a strict, legal-analysis perspective⁷ where, the actual changes are analyzed for their direct affects and the supporting structures they form to sustain technological advancement from an economic perspective.

This is a formal paper which has been refactored for publication on this website. During the transition, certain elements of formatting and structure may have been lost.

1. Europe and the former English-speaking British colonies, as compared to the Asian and Arabic-Islamic east, which we use to refer explicitly and exclusively to China and the Islamic nations - though, much can be applied to the entire non-West world. [↩]
2. Quite arguably, economic growth is technological growth. [↩]
3. The signs themselves, are expressed in the way that growth has not been interrupted since the point where Western technological dominance took place. Growth has been consistent rather than sporadic, and we have created a “kind of perpetual motion knowledge creation machine,” (Professor of Economics at UBC, Dr. Carlaw, November 22nd, 2008) where knowledge inherently begets more knowledge through our modern academic and scientific structures. [↩]
4. It’s important to note, as does Economic Transformations that there have been periods of historical technological growth centuries longer than the current one, all of which ended with a colossal crash. Furthermore, a strong set of poor government fiscal or monetary policy could quite easily bring an end to such evolutionary growth. [↩]
5. Which, importantly, did not emerge in the eastern societies examined. [↩]
6. This is the third section of this, “Comparative Differences: Eastern Arab-Islam and the West [↩]
7. The fourth section, “Western Legal Revolution: Changes and Shifts” [↩]

1. An Introduction
2. A Look at Technological Growth
3. Comparative Differences: Eastern Arab-Islam and the West
4. Western Legal Revolution: Changes and Shifts
5. Long-run Economies and the Results of Revolution
6. Further Reading
7. View all pages.

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