Francis Fukuyama famously announced "The End of History" after the end of the Cold War. Basically, with the defeat of Communism, we were said to have reached the end of experiments with governing systems, and to have arrived at a point where democratic forms were universally acknowledged as the end point of human political development. If only...
Fukuyama moved on from this and has looked at what happens to those same democracies that he previously proclaimed were "the end point". This, from his book, "Political Order and Political Decay", seems to capture the essence of our present time....
"Natural human sociability is based on kin selection and reciprocal altruism - that is, the preference for family and friends. While modern political orders seek to promote impersonal rule, elites in most societies tend to fall back on networks of family and friends, both as an instrument for protecting their positions and as the beneficiaries of their efforts. When they succeed, elites are said to "capture" the state, which reduced the latter's legitimacy and makes it less accountable to the population as a whole. Long periods of peace and prosperity often provide the conditions for spreading the capture by elites, which can lead to political crisis if followed by an economic downturn or external political shock."
Do we need more tax cuts for rich people?
Still reading Mueller's Tome...stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment