Six institutional "killer apps" explain Western dominance

Ferguson's central framework identifies competition, science, property rights under law, modern medicine, consumerism, and a disciplined work ethic as the specific institutional package that let Western Europe overtake far older, often wealthier civilizations after roughly 1500. He deliberately avoids explanations rooted in innate cultural or racial superiority, framing these instead as a historically contingent bundle of institutions that could, in principle, have emerged anywhere.

The metaphor of "apps" is deliberate: these are portable pieces of social software, not fixed genetic or geographic advantages, meaning any society that adopts the underlying institutions can access similar benefits. This framing sets up the book's most provocative claim — that the West's edge was always borrowable, and history shows other civilizations gradually acquiring the same package. Takeaway: durable power comes from institutions you can copy, not traits you're born with.