Freedom and the Red Queen Effect

Acemoğlu and Robinson explain the balancing process between the state and society with the metaphor of the “Red Queen”. The Red Queen is one of the characters in Lewis Carroll's world-famous book "Alice in Wonderland". The dialogue featured in the book is as follows;

Alice meets the Red Queen in the forest and they enter a race. Although they both ran with all their might, other trees and objects around them remained stationary. No matter how fast they accelerated, there was nothing they left behind. When the Red Queen finally told them to stop, Alice looked around in surprise and said, "How can I believe we've been under the same tree the whole time, everything is the same." “Of course it is, what did you expect?” said the Queen.

“If you run for a long time in our country, you will end up somewhere else,” said Alice, still out of breath. "It's a slow country," said the Queen. “As you can see, you can stay where you are only if you run with all your might, if you want to go somewhere else you have to increase your speed at least twice,” she said.

According to Acemoğlu and Robinson, with the effect of the Red Queen, the state and society are going through a similar process in order to maintain the balance between themselves. Both must be in a constant race, one must always run fast to catch up with the other. This effort is essential for them to maintain their current position and move forward. This competition contributes to the formation of a strong society and a strong state. It is argued that the democratic process can only be built and sustained in this way.