Politics
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
2011
When contemplating books on politics to read which I knew I would disagree with, international studies heavyweight Francis Fukuyama was someone I considered but briefly. Somewhere along the way I’d received the impression that Fukuyama had softened in his views and become somewhat more leftist later in life. Having read the first of this recently completed mammoth duology, I’m left wondering if perhaps the centre has just gravitated right and left him behind.
The Origins of Political Order is an ambitious attempt at understanding how and why human societies have developed such diverse political structures. The question Fukuyama seeks to answer over all is, why do some societies form state-bound structures, particularly democratic ones, and why do others remain tribal? It’s a question that many historians, philosophers and various other theorists have attempted to tackle in the past and there is a proliferation of theory on the matter; Fukuyama’s take combines a number of those approaches with his own views.