About this episode

Greg LaBlanc interviews Francis Fukuyama about modern democracy, liberalism, and the historical context of political discontent.

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science. In addition he is the author of several books. His most recent titles are Liberalism and Its Discontents, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, and the upcoming In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir. Greg and Francis talk about Frank’s “End of History” thesis and later work on liberalism, identity, trust, and political order. Fukuyama argues long-run historical progress is visible in the gap between developed and developing societies, but he still sees no coherent “higher” alternative to liberal democracy and market society. He also explains that modern discontent through generational forgetting of 20th-century horrors and a deeper human desire for recognition and struggle (thymos), including megalothymia - the drive for superiority, which can turn tyrannical. They discuss how modern prosperity…

People in this episode

Host: Greg LaBlanc

Guest: Francis Fukuyama

Topics covered

• modern democracy
• liberalism
• political order
• historical progress
• identity
• discontent

Keywords

• liberalism
• democracy
• political science
• historical progress
• identity
• discontent
• thymos
• American anti-statism

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford University, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy

Books & works: Liberalism and Its Discontents, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir

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