Editing Environmental determinism (section)

=== The disease environment ===
{{Main|Why Nations Fail}}

[[Daron Acemoglu]], [[Simon Johnson (economist)|Simon Johnson]], and [[James A. Robinson (Harvard University)|James A. Robinson]] have achieved notoriety for demonstrating that diseases and terrain have helped shape tendencies towards democracy versus dictatorship, and through these economic growth and development. In their book ''[[Why Nations Fail]]'', as well as a paper titled ''The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation'',<ref>{{cite journal | last=Acemoglu | first=Daron | last2=Johnson | first2=Simon | last3=Robinson | first3=James A. | title=The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation | journal=American Economic Review | volume=91 | issue=5 | date=1 December 2001 | issn=0002-8282 | pages=1369–1401 | doi=10.1257/aer.91.5.1369 | doi-access=free}}</ref> the authors show that the colonial disease environment shaped the tendency for Europeans to settle the territory or not, and whether they developed systems of agriculture and labor markets that were free and egalitarian versus exploitative and unequal. These choices of political and economic institutions, they argue, shaped tendencies to democracy or dictatorship over the following centuries.