In 1992, Francis Fukuyama published The End of History and the Last Man, an extended argument that the combination of liberal democracy and market capitalism could represent the end state for the evolution of human governance.
The book was an influential, much-discussed hit, with its central idea—”the end of history”—becoming popular shorthand for the triumph of liberal democratic capitalism. In the process, Fukuyama became one of the nation’s most widely recognized thinkers.
Fukuyama, notably, did not argue that other, more totalitarian forms of government could never return—only that in the very long term, market capitalism would prove more durable. Yet more than a quarter-century later, with the rise of populist political campaigns and democratic unrest throughout the Western world, some have wondered whether his most well-known idea remains relevant. In Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), the director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies tackles what he sees as one of the primary driving forces behind these challenges: the rise of identity politics.
In September, Fukuyama spoke with Reason‘s Nick Gillespie about his new book, the Donald Trump presidency, why economic gains aren’t enough to hold a society together, and whether or not we’ve really reached the end of history.
from Hit & Run http://bit.ly/2EIrBln
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