The changes that began to take place in the late 80s of the last century, Francis Fukuyama called "something fundamental", because they posed a number of insoluble problems for science and politics. The end of the Cold War, the privileged position of the United States as the only superpower, provoked a change in the geopolitical situation, and as a result the question arose of a new world order. The first to try to answer it was Francis Fukuyama in The End of History, a summary of which we will consider today.
What attracted attention?
The “End of History” by Francis Fukuyama made a lot of noise. Interest in this work was caused by a number of certain circumstances. Firstly, the public saw her in 1989. At this time, the Soviet Union still existed, and even abstractly it was impossible to assume that it would once fall apart. But Fukuyama wrote about this. If you study even a brief summary of Fukuyama's “End of History”, you can confidently say that his article was a terrorist forecast of the near and distant future. Here the principles and features of the new world order were fixed.
Secondly, in the light of recent events, the work of Fukuyama became sensational and attracted the attention of the public. In its significance, the work of Fukuyama is comparable with S. Huntington's treatise “The Clash of Civilizations”.
Thirdly, the ideas of Fukuyama explain the course, results and prospects of development of world history. It considers the development of liberalism as the only viable ideology on the basis of which the final form of government arises.
Biographical Information
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, economist, philosopher, and writer of Japanese descent. He worked as a senior fellow at the Stanford Center for Democracy and Law. Prior to that, he was a professor and led an international development program at the Hopkins School of Research. In 2012, he became a senior fellow at Stanford University.
He became famous as the author of Fukuyama thanks to the book “The End of History and the Last Man”. She was released in 1992. In this work, the writer insisted that the spread of liberal democracy around the world would be evidence that humanity is at the final stage of sociocultural evolution, and that it will become the final form of government.
Before starting to study the summary of “The End of History” by Francis Fukuyama, it’s worth to find out some interesting facts about the author and his work. This book was translated into 20 languages ​​of the world: it caused a great resonance among the scientific community and in the media. After the book saw the world, and the idea put forward in it was questioned more than once, Fukuyama did not abandon his concept of “the end of history”. Some of his views changed much later. At the dawn of his career, he was associated with the neoconservative movement, but in the new millennium, due to certain events, the author sharply moved away from this idea.
First part
Before considering the summary of Fukuyama's “End of History,” it is worth noting that the book consists of five parts. In each of them separate ideas are considered. In the first part, Fukuyama explores the historical pessimism of modern times. He believes that this state of affairs is the result of world wars, genocide and totalitarianism, which are characteristic of the twentieth century.
The disasters that have hit humanity have undermined faith not only in the scientific progress of the 21st century, but also in all ideas about the direction and continuity of history. Fukuyama asks himself whether human pessimism is justified. He explores the crisis of authoritarianism and the confident manifestation of liberal democracy. Fukuyama believed that humanity is moving towards the end of the millennium, and all existing crises leave only liberal democracy on the world stage - the doctrine of individual freedom and state sovereignty. A growing number of countries accept liberal democracy, and those who criticize it are not able to offer at least some alternative. This concept surpassed all political opponents and became a kind of guarantor of the culmination of the history of mankind.
The main idea of ​​the “End of History” by F. Fukuyama (a brief summary makes this clear) is that the main weakness of states is the inability to legitimacy. If you do not take into account the Somosa regime in Nicaragua, there was not a single state in the world where the old regime would be completely removed from activity by armed confrontation or revolution. The regimes changed due to the voluntary decision of the majority of the rulers of the old regime to transfer the reins of government to the new government. Voluntary renunciation of power was usually triggered by crises when it was necessary to introduce something new in order to avoid anarchy. This concludes the first part of the summary of The End of History by Fukuyama.
The second and third parts
The second and third parts of the book are independent essays that complement each other. They talk about the universal history and events that testify to the logical end of human evolution, at which liberal democracy will be the point.
In the second part, the author emphasizes the nature of modern sciences, while focusing on the imperatives of economic development. Even from the summary of Fukuyama’s “End of History”, one can conclude that a society striving for prosperity and protecting its independence must step on the path of innovative development and modernization. Economic development leads to the triumph of capitalism.
Fukuyama believed that history longs for freedom, but beyond that, craves recognition. People constantly strive to ensure that society recognizes their human dignity. It was this desire that helped them overcome the animal principle, and also allowed them to risk their lives in hunting and battles. Although, on the other hand, this desire became the reason for the division into slaves and slaveholders. True, this form of government was not able to satisfy the desire for recognition of the first or second. To eliminate the contradictions that arise in the struggle for recognition, it is necessary to create a state based on the common and mutual recognition of the rights of each of its inhabitants. That is how the end of history and the strong state of F. Fukuyama sees.
Fourth part
In this section, the author compares the typical thirst for recognition with the Platonic “spirituality” and the concept of “pride” of Rousseau. Fukuyama does not lose sight of universal concepts such as "self-esteem", "self-esteem", "self-worth" and "dignity". The attractiveness of democracy is associated primarily with personal freedom and equality. With the development of progress, the importance of this factor increases more and more, because as people become more educated and richer, they increasingly demand that their achievements and social status be recognized.
Here Fukuyama points out that even in successful authoritarian regimes there is a desire for political freedom. The thirst for recognition is precisely the lost link that connects the liberal economy and politics.
Fifth part
The last chapter of the book answers the question of whether liberal democracy is able to fully satisfy a person’s thirst for recognition and whether it can be considered the final point of human history. Fukuyama is convinced that liberal democracy is the best solution to the human problem, but it also has its negative aspects. In particular, a number of contradictions that can destroy this system. For example, the strained relationship between freedom and equality does not ensure equal recognition of minorities and insolvent people. The liberal democracy method undermines religious and other doliberal views, and a society based on freedom and equality is unable to provide an arena for the struggle for superiority.
Fukuyama is sure that this last contradiction is dominant among all the others. The author begins to use the concept of "last man", which is borrowed from Nietzsche. This "last man" has long ceased to believe in something, to recognize some ideas and truths, all that interests him is his own comfort. He is no longer able to experience lively interest or reverence, he simply exists. The summary “The End of History and the Last Man” focuses on liberal democracy. The last person here is considered, rather, as a by-product of the activities of the new regime of government.
The author also says that sooner or later the foundations of liberal democracy will be violated due to the fact that a person will not be able to suppress his desire for struggle. A person will start to fight for the sake of the battle itself, simply put, out of boredom, because it is difficult for people to imagine life in a world where there is no need to fight. As a result, Fukuyama comes to the conclusion: not only liberal democracy can satisfy human needs, but those whose needs have remained unsatisfied can restore the course of history. This concludes the summary of The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama.
The essence of the work
“The End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama is the first book by an American political scientist and philosopher, published in 1992. But before she appeared, in 1989 the world saw an essay of the same name. In the book, the author continues his main ideas.
- There is a certain consciousness in society that favors liberalism. Liberalism itself can be considered a universal ideology whose positions are absolute and cannot be changed or improved.
- By "end of history" the author understands the spread of Western culture and ideology.
- The process of introducing Western culture into society is considered the undeniable victory of economic liberalism.
- The victory of economic liberalism is a harbinger of political liberalism.
- The “end of history” is the triumph of capitalism. This was written by Anthony Giddens, who noted that the end of history is the end of any alternatives in which capitalism overthrows socialism. And this is a change in international relations.
- This is a victory of the West, which Fukuyama sees as a single integral system and does not see significant differences between countries, even among economic interests.
- The “End of History” divides the world into two parts. One belongs to history, the other to posthistory. They have different qualities, characteristics and features.
In general, these are the main ideas of the “End of History and the Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama.
Strong state
Apart from the “end of history”, Francis Fukuyama considered such a concept as a “strong state”. With the growth of political and ideological problems, the central of which was the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, Fukuyama radically revises his political position and becomes a supporter of a strong state. Over time, the world was introduced after the "End of History" and the "Strong State" by F. Fukuyama. In short, this book made an unexpected sensation among readers. The author began it with this thesis:
Building a strong state is to create new government institutions and strengthen existing ones. In this book, I show that building a strong state is one of the most important problems of the world community, since weakness and destruction of states are the source of many especially serious world problems ...
At the end of the book, he offers a no less epic statement:
Only states and some states are able to unite and it is advisable to place forces to ensure order. These forces are necessary to ensure the rule of law within the country and maintain international order. Those who advocate the “twilight of statehood” - whether they are champions of the free market or loyal to the idea of ​​multilateral negotiations - should explain what exactly will replace the power of sovereign nation-states in the modern world ... In fact, this gulf was filled by a motley collection of international organizations, criminal syndicates , terrorist groups and so on, which may have a certain degree of power and legitimacy, but rarely both at once. In the absence of a clear answer, we can only return to the sovereign national state and again try to understand how to make it strong and successful.
Change of mind
If the author had previously advocated liberalism, then in 2004 he wrote that liberal ideologies that promote minimization and limitations of state functions do not correspond to modern realities. He considers the idea that private markets and non-governmental institutions should fulfill some public functions as vicious. Fukuyama argues that weak and ignorant governments can be the source of serious problems in developing countries.
In the early 90s of the last century, Francis Fukuyama believed that liberal values ​​were universal, but with the advent of the new millennium, he had doubts about this. He even agreed with the ideas of Samuel Huntington, who said that liberal values ​​were born due to the specific development conditions of Western countries.
Fukuyama considers “weak” states those countries in which human rights are violated, corruption flourishes, and institutions of traditional society are undeveloped. In such a country, there are no competent leaders and social upheaval is ongoing. This often leads to armed conflicts and mass migration processes. Weak states often support international terrorism.
Strong State Levels
The views of Francis Fukuyama began with liberal democracy, but life has shown that this is not enough. Humanity is not ready to coexist peacefully with each other, and if in some states it became possible to stifle animal impulses to fight, then in others they become prevailing. And Fukuyama begins to talk about a strong state that will not be an analogue of a totalitarian or authoritarian power.
This notorious force is considered at two levels:
- all citizens are provided with social security, political stability and economic prosperity:
- the country is competitive in the international arena, able to withstand the many challenges of globalization.
In conclusion, we can say that both the first and second books provide an opportunity to understand the reasons for the split in the West, the causes of confrontations and the financial crisis in different countries of the world.