The distant origins of the present volume lie in an article entitled
"The End of History?" which I wrote for the journal The National
Interest in the summer of 1989. 1 In it, I argued that a remarkable
consensus concerning the legitimacy of liberal democracy as a
system of government had emerged throughout the world over
the past few years, as it conquered rival ideologies like hereditary
monarchy, fascism, and most recently communism. More than
that, however, I argued that liberal democracy may constitute the
"end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and the "final form
of human government," and as such constituted the "end of history."
That is, while earlier forms of government were characterized
by grave defects and irrationalities that led to their eventual
collapse, liberal democracy was arguably free from such fundamental
internal contradictions. This was not to say that today's
stable democracies, like the United States, France, or Switzerland,
were not without injustice or serious social problems. But these
problems were ones of incomplete implementation of the twin
principles of liberty and equality on which modern democracy is
founded, rather than of flaws in the principles themselves. While
some present-day countries might fail to achieve stable liberal
democracy, and others might lapse back into other, more primitive
forms of rule like theocracy or military dictatorship, the ideal
of liberal democracy could not be improved on.
The distant origins of the present volume lie in an article entitled
"The End of History?" which I wrote for the journal The National
Interest in the summer of 1989. 1 In it, I argued that a remarkable
consensus concerning the legitimacy of liberal democracy as a
system of government had emerged throughout the world over
the past few years, as it conquered rival ideologies like hereditary
monarchy, fascism, and most recently communism. More than
that, however, I argued that liberal democracy may constitute the
"end point of mankind's ideological evolution" and the "final form
of human government," and as such constituted the "end of history."
That is, while earlier forms of government were characterized
by grave defects and irrationalities that led to their eventual
collapse, liberal democracy was arguably free from such fundamental
internal contradictions. This was not to say that today's
stable democracies, like the United States, France, or Switzerland,
were not without injustice or serious social problems. But these
problems were ones of incomplete implementation of the twin
principles of liberty and equality on which modern democracy is
founded, rather than of flaws in the principles themselves. While
some present-day countries might fail to achieve stable liberal
democracy, and others might lapse back into other, more primitive
forms of rule like theocracy or military dictatorship, the ideal
of liberal democracy could not be improved on.
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