Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama

His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese-American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church and received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago. Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (born 27 October 1952) is an American philosopher, political economist, and author.įrancis Fukuyama was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. In this short, clear account of our current political discontents, Fukuyama offers an essential defense of a revitalized liberalism for the twenty-first century. The result, Fukuyama argues, has been a fracturing of our civil society and an increasing peril to our democracy. As the renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama shows in Liberalism and Its Discontents, the principles of liberalism have also, in recent decades, been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left: neoliberals made a cult of economic freedom, and progressives focused on identity over human universality as central to their political vision. Conservatives complain that liberalism empties the common life of meaning. Who counted as full human beings worthy of universal rights was contested for centuries, and only recently has this circle expanded to include women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people, and others.

In America, many people were denied equality before the law. It's no secret that liberalism didn't always live up to its own ideals. It emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue their own forms of happiness free from encroachment by government. Developed in the wake of Europe's wars over religion and nationalism, liberalism is a system for governing diverse societies, which is grounded in fundamental principles of equality and the rule of law. A short book about the challenges to liberalism from the right and the left by the bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order.Ĭlassical liberalism is in a state of crisis.

Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama