{"id":84811,"date":"2022-11-20T14:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=84811"},"modified":"2022-11-28T16:15:32","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T20:15:32","slug":"understanding-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/understanding-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Democracy: 3 Takeaways From Francis Fukuyama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is there a \u201crecipe\u201d for democratic government? Is democracy contingent? Can political decay be reversed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To understand the pressures on democracy in the 21st century, it\u2019s important to understand what modern democracy is and where it came from. Francis Fukuyama aims to build that foundation in his book <em>The Origins of Political Order<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading for the book&#8217;s takeaways on understanding democracy in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-state-of-the-world-today\/\">the world today<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-understanding-democracy\">Understanding Democracy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Origins of Political Order<\/em>, by Francis Fukuyama, explores the development of political systems from prehistory to the eve of the American and French revolutions in the late 18th century. Fukuyama is interested in how and why contemporary liberal democracies emerged. He argues that <strong>there are three main components of a stable democratic society<\/strong>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>A strong <\/strong><strong><em>state<\/em><\/strong> capable of wielding military power, collecting taxes, and enforcing laws.<\/li><li><strong>The <\/strong><strong><em>rule of law<\/em><\/strong>\u2014the belief in an ordering principle higher than the state itself by which the state must abide if it\u2019s to remain legitimate.<\/li><li><strong><em>Accountability<\/em><\/strong>, which means that a state respects the rights and needs of its citizens, to whom it must ultimately answer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Fukuyama begins by suggesting that understanding the three pillars will help us foster modern democracies. But, in the end, the book is more of an analytical <em>description<\/em> of political history than a practical <em>prescription<\/em> for political action. In fact, given how complex Fukuyama shows political evolution to be, it seems unlikely that we could ever devise a \u201crecipe\u201d for democratic government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still, the book offers a few lessons that can add to our understanding of foreign policy and domestic politics\u2014and, hopefully, guide policymakers to the best possible decisions. We\u2019ll explore these takeaways for understanding democracy while counterbalancing Fukuyama\u2019s often optimistic views on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/political-development\/\">political development<\/a> with the more skeptical opinions of some of his critics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-takeaway-1-democracy-is-contingent\">Takeaway #1: Democracy Is Contingent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>One of Fukuyama\u2019s key ideas is that modern democracy is contingent on the existence of specific conditions that allow the three pillars to develop. For Fukuyama, this contingency is good news because it means that the road to modern democracy is always open. He stresses that each of the three pillars has evolved independently in different cultures at different times in history. This implies that there\u2019s no one blueprint for attaining modern democracy and that <em>any<\/em> culture can get there given the right conditions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: On the other hand, some reviewers find Fukuyama\u2019s optimism unconvincing, arguing that what the book <em>really<\/em> proves is that modern democracy requires a lot of lucky breaks that make it next to impossible to deliberately build a democratic system. For example, one reviewer contends that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2011\/may\/12\/origins-political-order-francis-fukuyama-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fukuyama\u2019s analysis is circular<\/a> in that it claims that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/history-of-democracy-in-england\/\">English democracy<\/a> emerged because England already had democratic tendencies. Likewise, another reviewer complains that <a href=\"https:\/\/reviews.history.ac.uk\/review\/1261\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fukuyama fails to explain how to actually get from a dysfunctional government to a functional one except by not being dysfunctional in the first place<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-takeaway-2-the-state-must-precede-democracy\">Takeaway #2: The State Must Precede Democracy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For democracy to succeed, Fukuyama says, a country first needs to develop a strong central state that can enforce order, provide vital services (such as infrastructure and education), and forge a coherent sense of national identity. He notes that it\u2019s typically a bad idea to transplant democratic systems into societies that haven\u2019t already evolved a strong state. Doing so creates more problems than it solves: Without a strong state, transplanted democracies tend to result in corruption and clientage (the exchange of political favors for money or goods). This happens because without a strong pre-existing state, elected officials often continue tribal patterns of behavior, which encourage funneling resources to one\u2019s own group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: It\u2019s unclear what exactly we should <em>do<\/em> with the observation that a strong state is a necessary precursor to democracy. One lesson we can draw is that tampering in other countries\u2019 politics in an attempt to spread democracy is counterproductive at best. Still, as one reviewer points out, in places where the population wishes to replace a dysfunctional or exploitative government with a democratic system, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/67b8f490-4269-11e4-9818-00144feabdc0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">waiting for a stronger state isn\u2019t necessarily a viable option<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-takeaway-3-political-systems-can-decay\">Takeaway #3: Political Systems Can Decay<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Though well-established political systems of all types (democratic or otherwise) often appear stable, Fukuyama notes that there\u2019s always the danger of political decay and collapse. Decay can happen when political institutions fail to keep up with changing social and economic conditions or when familial, tribal, or factional interests gain more power or influence than the state itself. For example, centuries after China created its bureaucratic state (between 770-256 BC), kinship-based organization gradually reasserted itself as individual aristocrats began hoarding political power among their own families. This trend culminated in the collapse of the empire (from AD 220-581) and a return to localized, decentralized rule instead of a state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>How to Reverse Political Decay<\/strong><br><br>While Imperial China\u2019s political collapse was, in effect, a reversion to a previous form of social order, a similar upsurge of factional interests can happen even in societies that lack a strong tribal or kinship tradition. For instance, in <a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9780374535629\/politicalorderandpoliticaldecay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Political Order and Political Decay<\/em><\/a>, Fukuyama explains that until the end of the 19th century, the US lacked strong central authority and was dominated by corrupt local politics based on bribery and clientage. Though the country went through a series of reforms and modernizations in the 20th century, Fukuyama warns that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/09\/14\/books\/review\/francis-fukuyamas-political-order-and-political-decay.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in the 21st century, lobbies, interest groups, and congressional factionalism have gradually eroded the government\u2019s effectiveness\u2014and the public\u2019s faith in their leaders<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br>Unfortunately, there\u2019s no clear answer to these problems, though experts have offered a wide range of suggestions. As far as US politics, some analysts recommend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/article\/fighting-special-interest-lobbyist-power-public-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">banning lobbyist fundraising and preventing former politicians from joining lobbies<\/a>, whereas others suggest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/monkey-cage\/wp\/2015\/04\/29\/the-solution-to-lobbying-is-more-lobbying\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funding <em>more diverse<\/em> interest groups in order to balance out the primarily corporate interests<\/a> that currently dominate politics. Meanwhile, observers have sought to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/interactives\/2019\/how-to-fix-politics-in-america\/gridlock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">end congressional gridlock<\/a> with solutions ranging from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/interactives\/2019\/how-to-fix-politics-in-america\/gridlock\/ditch-the-filibuster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ending the filibuster<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/07\/fixing-u-s-politics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">changing the way elections work<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br>Improving any political system will likely remain a process of trial and error. But if Fukuyama is right about political decay\u2014and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idea.int\/publications\/catalogue\/global-state-democracy-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a 2021 study showing that democracy is under greater threat than ever before<\/a> suggests he is\u2014it seems certain that countries wishing to preserve their democracies need to do <em>something<\/em>.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is there a \u201crecipe\u201d for democratic government? Is democracy contingent? Can political decay be reversed? To understand the pressures on democracy in the 21st century, it\u2019s important to understand what modern democracy is and where it came from. Francis Fukuyama aims to build that foundation in his book The Origins of Political Order. Continue reading for the book&#8217;s takeaways on understanding democracy in the world today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":84825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,275,24],"tags":[811],"class_list":["post-84811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-politics","category-society","tag-the-origins-of-political-order","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Understanding Democracy: 3 Takeaways From Francis Fukuyama - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"To know how democracy works, you must know its makeup and origins. 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