In the End of History?, which was written at the conclusion of the cold war, Fukuyama argues that with the collapse of communism and of the Soviet Union, that history in terms of ideological differences had come to an end. What does this mean? Fukuyama believed that liberal democracies in which the western world and Europe had become accustomed too, was reaching its pinnacle, its prime. It had begun to spread throughout the world. He believed that as time went on, every society would adapt their ideologies to converge to varying degrees of liberal democracy. According to Fukuyama, there will be no more real adversaries to liberalism and thus, history in an ideological sense had ended.
In the 21st century, there have been plenty of examples of potential competition to liberalism as seen by the emergence of social democracy and the push for welfare states as well as varying degrees of fundamentalism and nationalism all throughout the world. Fukuyama believed that all societies where converging towards democracy and capitalism and that the world was beginning to embrace the ideas and principles of western liberalism, capitalism and materialism. He argued that “liberal democracy remains the only coherent political aspiration that spans different regions and cultures across the globe.” (Mapping the political landscape p.323). Although Fukuyama believes that with the fall of communism and fascism, liberal democracy had finally assumed it rightful place as that right ideology in the world, he seems to have overlooked the overall flexibility of liberal ideologies as well as capitalism and materialism.
The main problem with Fukuyama thesis is that his idea of liberal democracy is an very Americanized on. The problem with this view is th...
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...tical freedom, especially the freedom to participate in and influence the government, have been on the rise all over the world since the 1990’s but it worthy to note that democracy and economic success do not always go hand in hand, China has shown that there is no need for democracy in order to experience economic growth and prosperity it has simply taken the idea that works best for them from the liberal ideologies and applied it to their system. Has history ended? It hasn’t, as societies, even those as advanced as those in the U.S still hasn’t found the right balance to prosper globally and for individuals to proper at home. What will continue to happen, is we will continue to learning, to debate, to argue and to find solutions as a global community, a community that is more integrated and more connected that it was when Fukuyama believed that history had ended.
...ities as a responsible state holder. One of the consequences of the international community questioning China’s military capabilities is that the international community could potentially induce an unproductive arms race with China. If China is to participate in the race, China will have a weakened competitive position in the races of economic and intellectual strength. Secondly, China will lose the ability to use its army as a form of soft power therefore making it harder to believe that China can be a responsible state holder since it will seem like propaganda. In terms of China, the world is in a very exciting position with the promotion of the China’s model an alternative governing system is being offered. However, we need to remain vigilant and aware for just as quickly as China rose, it has the potential to fall as well if it doesn’t play it’s cards right.
A fear of total anarchy has arisen in the hearts of their leaders, and many are holding on for dear life to their old customs and beliefs of control, while others such as China and Russia are hesitantly going with the flow. Sullivan is unsure of the effect this Pursuit of Happiness will have on the future; can any of us predict, we only know the past and the present. " As I write I have no idea as to the conclusion of this new drama in world history except that it will have ramifications as large and as lasting as the Cold War." Works Cited ANDREW SULLIVAN.
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
...ubmitting accession applications to the EU (Steger, 2003.) China, the world’s current second largest economy (IMF Historical data, 2013), has also been moving towards liberalism trade policy. Since the late 1980s imports subject to licensing have been greatly reduced and total controlled exports in their economy have been reduced from 66% in 1991 to 8% in 1999. China’s private sector has also been growing and fewer people are being employed in state-controlled manufacturing jobs (Lardy, 2003.) The transformation and elimination of communism around the world has all but removed Marxist ideology from the global economic perspective.
In his article The End of History?, Francis Fukuyama attempts to answer the question of whether the end of the 20th century would see a move towards liberal democracy, or whether it would continue to see the implementation of failed ideological systems. Throughout the article, Fukuyama discusses the rise and fall of non-liberal ideologies - such as communism and fascism – and argues that human history should be viewed as an ongoing shift towards democracy, which he views as emergent and ultimately unchallenged. He suggests that in spite of the fact that its spread is still not complete throughout the world, he holds that the idea of democracy has ultimately won the battle of the ideologies due to the spread of the consumerist culture throughout the world and to the gradual change to democratic thought in countries such as China, Japan or Russia which previously strongly embraced contrary ideologies. Fukuyama proposes that liberal democracy will come as a result of two factors. The first and more obvious being economic reasons, and the second being what he refers to as “struggle for recognition”, which explains history as man’s search for recognition, as in a contradiction between a master and slave. He holds that in a universally homogenous state all contradictions are resolved and all man’s needs are satisfied, and therefore there are no large conflicts and no need for statesmen. All that remains is the economic activity.
...) and bring China under uniform thought as well. Thus, in his attempt to accomplish his goals he placed less emphasis on freedom and more on developing a sturdy political backbone. Deng, on the other hand, wanted to thrust China in the global community for economic fortune at the expense of everything Mao had established. In the process, he brought a freedom and wave of democracy to the People's Republic, endowing the Chinese citizens with dreams of wealth and prosperity that were never even considered in the time of Mao. As China, progresses further into the twenty first century, its role seems quite unclear. A return to Post-revolutionary authoritarian communism seems unlikely, as does the institution of a true democracy but perhaps a new form of stability will arise to grant greater liberty to individuals or possibly even another Tiannenmen lurking in the future.
Fukuyama's article states that the world is nearing the "end of history". While the phrase "end of history" seems to suggest imminent doom and the end of the world. That is, however, not what he is suggesting. Fukuyama argues that history, or in other words the growth and development of human ideals and philosophies, is reaching its peak. The article delves into the various eras of the past such as the renaissance and explains the strengths and weaknesses of the main ideologies during those eras. He then further explains the growth pattern between those eras which has lead to the current ideology of liberal democracy. He believes that liberal democracy is the best ideology and that it is the final stage in human ideological development. He further suggest that human history should be viewed as a progression or battle of ideologies. With the current trend of universalization of liberal democracy and individualism, both characteristics of Western culture, he argues that Western liberal democracy has become the grand victor. He also asserts that despite the liberal democratic ideology has not completely been realized in the material world, the idea has been accepted and has triumphed over all alternate ideologies.
Typically Liberalism can be categorized into two different strands, Classical and Modern (yet some thinkers advocate a third strand that is referred to as Neo-Liberalism), each characterized by their differing and to some extent unavoidably overlapping attitudes regarding the theory behind the ideology and how it should be put into practice. Prior to examining how these relate to one another and before making any comparisons, it is important to give a definition, as best as possible, of Liberalism as a concept.
In 1985 one fifth of the worlds population was living under military controlled governments (Harper's Index Book), and it may around half now since China so brutally squashed its citizens' move toward democracy (Harper's Index Book). The reunificat...
China is the largest developing country in today’s world and the rapid growth of the Chinese economy has attracted attention from all over the world. Some people falsely think that China is a country that China is only pursuing their economic reform, but without any democratic changes. On the contrary, China actually has a long history of democratic reforms. China has a different way of democratic reform that different from western-style democracy, which made Westerners think China is a powerful country with limitations in democracy. However, my point of view is that China is not limiting their democratic change, and China is utilizing a distinctive form of democracy.
...he goal of communism to work towards the benefit of the whole, many would argue that this is not being accomplished in China today. The information that the Chinese government feed to their people is affecting their citizen’s ability to decipher from what is true and what is false. Government-controlled media compare life in China today to life before liberation, where the people lived in poverty. However, many Chinese people of the younger generation view this as the past and instead compare China to its neighboring countries, such as Japan, which has accomplished much more in the same amount of time. The next generation of the Chinese people is determined initiate a change and perhaps a revolution to bring back the true harmony in China where there is trust and a lack of oppression on civil rights, and in result fulfilling Lu Xun’s wish to, “Save the children...”
As both "conservatism" and "liberalism" have had various meanings sooner or later and transversely countries, the word liberal conservatism has been used in relatively different sanity. In political science, the word is used to pass on to ideologies that merge the support of capitalism, for instance value for contracts, protection of private property and free market require reference to validate with the principle in natural discrimination, the significance of religion, and the worth of traditional integrity need reference to validate in the course of a construction of inadequate, legitimate, representative government (Abdou & Zaazou 2013). It contrasts with traditional liberalism and particularly aristocratic conservatism, rejecting the belief of correspondence as a little in discordance with human nature, instead emphasizing the thought of natural inequality (Crozier. 2012).As the conservative thought in democratic countries hold typical liberal institutions such as the rule of law, private property, market economy, and constitutional representative government, the liberal factor of liberal conservatism
Zakaria, F. (2007). The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition). New York: W. W. Norton.
To start, Liberalism traces its roots back to the Enlightenment period (Mingst, 2008) where many philosophers and thinkers of the time began to question the established status quo. Such as the prevailing belief in religious superstition and began to replace it with a more rational mode of thinking and a belief in the intrinsic goodness of mankind. The Enlightenment period influenced Liberalism’s belief that human beings are thinkers who are able to naturally understand the laws governing human social conduct and by understanding these laws, humans can better their condition and live in harmony with others (Mingst, 2008). Two of the most prominent Liberal Internationalists of the Enlightenment period were Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham who both thought that international relations were conducted in a brutal fashion. It was Kant who compared international relations as “the lawless state of savagery” (Baylis and Smith, 2001, pp 165). It was also Kant who believed nations could form themselves into a sort of united states and overcome international anarchy through this (Mingst, 2008). This was probably the beginning of a coherent belief in a sort of union of sovereign states. Toward the end of the seventeenth century William Penn believed a ‘diet’ (parliament) could be set up in Europe, like the European Union of today (Baylis and Smith, 2001). We can see much of this liberal thinking today in organizations such as the United Nations.
In the race to be the best, China is clearly outperforming the United States. China has strong economic fundamentals¬ such as “a high savings rate, huge labor pool, and powerful work ethic” (Rachman, Gideon. "Think Again: American Decline). Their economy has grown an astonishing 9-10% over the past thirty years; almost double of what it used to be decades ago. China is also the “world’s greatest manufacturer and its greatest market” (Rachman). The continuing growth of China's economy is a source of concern for not only the U.S. but surrounding nations as well. One could argue that the U.S. need not worry about China’s growth because of the spread of globalization and that western ideologies would influence China to turn to democracy. Yet China has still managed to “incorporate censorship and one party rule with continuing economic success” (Rachman) and remains a communist country. Hypothetically, even if China does resort to a democratic state, this does not gua...