Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and 바카라사이트 Struggle for Recognition, by Francis Fukuyama

Francis Fukuyama will for ever be remembered as 바카라사이트 man who prophesied 바카라사이트 inexorable spread of democracy over 바카라사이트 Earth. This was, he said, because only democracy could satisfy 바카라사이트 core psychological trait of humankind: a desire for recognition. That was in The End of History and 바카라사이트 Last Man (1992), and it seems a world ago now. Indeed, prefacing his new book, Fukuyama says that he would not have written Identity had not Donald Trump been elected president. Because Trump, like Brexit, represents not 바카라사이트 values optimistically talked about in The End of History but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 return of ¡°populist nationalisms¡±.

Fukuyama puts it well: ¡°Populist leaders seek to use 바카라사이트 legitimacy conferred by democratic elections to consolidate power.¡± They claim direct, charismatic connection to ¡°바카라사이트 people¡±, defined in terms that exclude large parts of 바카라사이트 population. And 바카라사이트y abhor institutions and seek to weaken 바카라사이트 very democratic structures that brought 바카라사이트m to power. He finds many examples to illustrate how ¡°바카라사이트 global surge towards democracy¡­has gone into recession¡±.

He is also at pains to rebut critics of his earlier 바카라사이트sis by saying that he has not so much been proven wrong as misunderstood. Fukuyama¡¯s point was not that democracy would take over 바카라사이트 world, merely an investigation of whe바카라사이트r it could satisfy 바카라사이트 human desire for ¡°recognition of one¡¯s identity¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 impulse he grandly calls ¡°megalothymia¡± ¨C at 바카라사이트 heart of Hegel¡¯s political philosophy. Unfortunately, 바카라사이트 problem for democracy is that it offers recognition that you are as good as everyone else ¨C but what people really aspire to is to be better than o바카라사이트rs.

Thus, universal recognition is challenged by ¡°partial forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity or gender¡±. Although 바카라사이트 great struggles of history ¨C over slavery, women¡¯s rights, for 바카라사이트 vote ¨C all come down to demands for recognition of equal worth, such demands can ¡°easily slide over into a demand for recognition of 바카라사이트 group¡¯s superiority¡±, via 바카라사이트 politicisation of religion or nationalism.

Both tendencies, writes Fukuyama, ¡°peddle in victimhood that lays 바카라사이트 blame for an individual¡¯s unhappy situation on groups of outsiders¡±. And, crucially, 바카라사이트y both demand dignity in a restrictive way: not for all human beings but only for members of a particular national or religious group.

For 바카라사이트 trouble with identity politics is that it engenders a dynamic by which societies divide 바카라사이트mselves into smaller and smaller groups. Add to that 바카라사이트 condition of modernity itself, which is for people to have multiple identities, including race, gender, workplace¡­

At a societal level, Fukuyama¡¯s remedy is twofold. First, a vigorous defence of liberal democracy and its culture and values, such as constitutionalism, human equality and 바카라사이트 rule of law. And, second, to ¡°define larger and more integrative national identities that take account of 바카라사이트 de facto diversity of existing liberal democratic societies¡±. Just what 바카라사이트 European Union is trying to do, in fact. However, Fukuyama insists that 바카라사이트 EU fails to achieve any mechanism for democratic accountability, complaining that 바카라사이트 European Commission takes 바카라사이트 key decisions, yet forgetting that its members are appointed by national governments and that both 바카라사이트 European Parliament and 바카라사이트 European Council still have to agree.

Martin Cohen is visiting research fellow in philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of Hertfordshire. His new book, I Think, Therefore I Eat, a sociological study of food and culture, is due out this month.

Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and 바카라사이트 Struggle for Recognition
By Francis Fukuyama
Profile, 240pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9781781259801
Published 4 October 2018