文章基本信息

标题：Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.
作者：Wisor, Scott
期刊名称：Global Governance
印刷版ISSN：1075-2846
出版年度：2015
期号：October
语种：English
出版社：Lynne Rienner Publishers
摘要：This is the second of Francis Fukuyama's two-volume set on political order. In this volume, Fukuyama focuses on the development of political orders that permit innovation, growth, and the promotion of well-being and that guarantee certain basic liberties and rights. Three aspects are distinctive about Fukuyama's approach to political institutions, in contrast to other recent big books on political institutions, including Why Nations Fail (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, 2012) and Violence and Social Orders (Douglass North, John Wallis, and Barry Weingast, 2009). First, Fukuyama highlights the importance of state capacity, especially in terms of the development of a merit-based autonomous bureaucracy, as central to the development of society more generally. Oftentimes, these capable states emerge before democratization occurs. Second, Fukuyama shows that social and economic conditions, especially in terms of a growing middle class with an interest in the rule of law and a willingness to compete for the electoral support of lower classes, must be right for democratization to occur. Third, Fukuyama shows that well-developed democratic political orders can decay. Institutions can be captured by special interest groups, and both the rule of law and accountable electoral politics can be distorted to serve the interests of the few rather than many. The United States, in his view, is an example of political institutions that are decaying. Growing economic inequality, and the capture of both the electoral process and the media by narrow special interests, as well as the proliferation of vetoes across branches of government threaten the prosperity and stability that was characteristic of the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century. In an otherwise extremely powerful book, one weak spot emerges when Fukuyama attacks identity politics as detrimental to securing political institutions that deliver economic prosperity. This may be overly simplistic, as many of the claims made by women and ethnic minorities, for example, are not about special recognition but about access to more equal economic opportunity.
关键词：Books

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.

Wisor, Scott

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. By Francis Fukuyama. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

This is the second of Francis Fukuyama's two-volume set on political order. In this volume, Fukuyama focuses on the development of political orders that permit innovation, growth, and the promotion of well-being and that guarantee certain basic liberties and rights. Three aspects are distinctive about Fukuyama's approach to political institutions, in contrast to other recent big books on political institutions, including Why Nations Fail (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, 2012) and Violence and Social Orders (Douglass North, John Wallis, and Barry Weingast, 2009). First, Fukuyama highlights the importance of state capacity, especially in terms of the development of a merit-based autonomous bureaucracy, as central to the development of society more generally. Oftentimes, these capable states emerge before democratization occurs. Second, Fukuyama shows that social and economic conditions, especially in terms of a growing middle class with an interest in the rule of law and a willingness to compete for the electoral support of lower classes, must be right for democratization to occur. Third, Fukuyama shows that well-developed democratic political orders can decay. Institutions can be captured by special interest groups, and both the rule of law and accountable electoral politics can be distorted to serve the interests of the few rather than many. The United States, in his view, is an example of political institutions that are decaying. Growing economic inequality, and the capture of both the electoral process and the media by narrow special interests, as well as the proliferation of vetoes across branches of government threaten the prosperity and stability that was characteristic of the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century. In an otherwise extremely powerful book, one weak spot emerges when Fukuyama attacks identity politics as detrimental to securing political institutions that deliver economic prosperity. This may be overly simplistic, as many of the claims made by women and ethnic minorities, for example, are not about special recognition but about access to more equal economic opportunity.