WAVES COMPLETE V 2018 04 16 WIN HOW TO

But the truth of the matter is that scholars who would never have deigned to make the bold pronouncements that turned Fukuyama into a worldwide celebrity were committed to equally far-reaching assumptions. Many social scientists dismissed Fukuyama’s work out of hand.

WAVES COMPLETE V 2018 04 16 WIN HOW TO

Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It (2018). Yascha Mounk is associate professor of the practice of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University and the author of The People vs. Devoid of credible alternatives, the world was safe for liberal democracy: “The state that emerges at the end of history is liberal insofar as it recognizes and protects through a system of law man’s universal right to freedom, and democratic insofar as it exists only with the consent of the governed.” 2 Communism might still have “some isolated true believers” in such far-flung places as “Managua, Pyongyang, or Cambridge, Massachusetts,” 1 but it was no longer a viable contender for ideological hegemony.

Although various twentieth-century political movements had promised to supersede Western liberalism, by the end of the century their impetus had been exhausted. The most prominent manifestation of this optimism was Francis Fukuyama’s thesis of the “end of history.” Writing a few months before the Berlin Wall fell, Fukuyama argued that humankind’s ideological evolution had come to an end. In due course, others would surely follow suit. It had already triumphed in many of the most militarily dominant, economically advanced, and culturally influential countries in the world. Liberal democracy, many argued, was the most just and attractive political regime. Until a few years ago, the optimists reigned supreme. Such conclusions risk being just as rash as the more optimistic ones that preceded them. Indeed, some authors today predict that as the conditions that made liberal democracy possible fade away, it is likely to be supplanted by illiberal democracy, competitive authoritarianism, or outright dictatorship. Now, as the tides of history are rapidly turning, the hypotheses of theory are being reversed. The most prominent manifestation of this optimism was Francis Fukuyama’s thesis of the “end of history.” Ironically, many of the same social scientists who dismissed Fukuyama’s work out of hand at the time were themselves committed to equally far-reaching assumptions.

Until a few years ago, many argued that liberal democracy was the most just and attractive political regime.

Waves complete v 2018 04 16 win