Political Order

Based on a recent review in the New York Times, I have added a new book by Francis Fukuyama to my reading list.

The book, The Origins of Political Order, is said to reflect an evolution of his thinking earlier expressed in an essay, The End of History. Although I had problems with the thesis of his earlier book, I am intrigued by the new one, in which he takes issue not only with his earlier neoconservative colleagues, but also with the individualist views of libertarians.

Fukuyama views politics as a product of history and evolution, and rejects the absolutism of Lockean natural rights theory and market fundamentalism. In contrast to libertarians like Friedrich Hayek, who try to explain society in terms of Homo economicus, Fukuyama emphasizes that a strong and capable state has always been a precondition for a flourishing capitalist economy.

“Human beings never existed," he observes, "in a pre­social state. The idea that human beings at one time existed as isolated individuals, who interacted either through anarchic violence (Hobbes) or in pacific ignorance of one another (Rousseau), is not correct.”