A Research On Francis Fukuyama’s Theory Of Political Order

Francis Fukuyama,the Japanese-American scholar,has successively published three books in the 21 st century,namely,State Building: Governance and World Order in the Twenty-first Century,The Origins of Political Order: from Prehuman Times to the French Revolution,and Political Order and Political Decay: from the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.These three books basically build up his theory of political order in response to the years of doubt in academic circles about whether his theory of "the end of history" still has realistic explanatory power.This thesis makes a comprehensive study of Fukuyama’s political order theory,and deeply reveals the academic value and limitations of this theory.Firstly,this thesis analyzes Fukuyama’s theory of political order from three aspects:the formation background,the origin of the three elements of good political order,and the development logic of the three elements.Secondly,focusing on the problem of political decay in the United States,this thesis examines whether Fukuyama’s understanding of political decay truly reflects the real problems of liberal democracy.Lastly,with the research method of historical politics,focuses on the criticism of the development logic in the theory of political order and the relevant discussion on China.The context of Fukuyama’s theory of political order,namely,the "return" of the "Third Wave " of democratization and the emergence of "failed states",showed Fukuyama that liberal democracy was neither the inevitable choice for the political development of all nations,nor the end of their history.Meanwhile,the failure of the US-led "Washington Consensus",the frequent political and economic chaos in the United States,and as a contrast,the great achievements of China in its overall development,all prompted Fukuyama to review the problems of liberal democracy.Therefore,Fukuyama drew on a wide range of theoretical resources and then put forward his theory of political order.The direct theoretical sources that prompted Fukuyama’s research on political order were the theory of political development and the theory of clash of civilizations proposed by Samuel Huntington.In addition,Fukuyama’s years of academic exploration also provided him with the necessary ideological foundation for his deep thinking about the political history of various countries and the reality of the United States.The internal logic of Fukuyama’s political order theory starts from the core concepts,and conducts a general theoretical analysis of political order and state construction.Political order is the coordinated development of various elements(actors)within a political community,which can not only provide legitimacy for political power,but also constrain political actors through institutionalization.As an important concept in the theory of the state,state building,when applied to China,is first faced with the question of how to position the "state".State construction refers to the construction of modern nation-states.Countries with different levels of development and different histories and cultures have different national-state characteristics.There are three qualifying conditions stipulate that the process of political development must be different in various countries,and that simple institutional transplants that do not take into account historical conditions cannot achieve the sound political development of a country.State building is the main thread of Fukuyama’s analysis of the origin and evolution of political order,including the enhancement of state capacity and the public nature of bureaucracy;the other two elements,the rule of law and democratic accountability,are intended to constrain the disorderly expansion of state power in building an effective state and to guide the objective-oriented state capacity.Fukuyama believes that the origin of state building is in ancient China,more precisely in the "impersonal" bureaucracy established in the Qin and Han dynasties,and he believes that China has prematurely revealed the characteristics of a modern state,i.e.the "premature theory".As a contrast,the practice of state building in ancient India and Ottoman Turkish Empire did not form an effective state ruling system like China.The European bureaucracy,after the French Revolution,absorbed the experience of China,but different countries in Europe and America took on different characteristics.The rule of law and democratic accountability,on the other hand,had their origins in Western Europe,where the rule of law had its roots in Christianity and where the secular state,through a power struggle with the Church,eventually gained the right to make and judge laws.Fukuyama believes that the rule of law is absent in China,and the power struggle between secular countries and churches in the Middle East is similar to that in the West,but ultimately Arab countries still lack the rule of law.Democratic accountability had its origins in the British feudal system,that is,the medieval manor assembly(parliament),but its expansion was undermined by European and American patronage and dependency.Eventually in the UK,the parliament and the monarch were evenly matched,with the Glorious Revolution as the beginning of democratic accountability.The value of democratic accountability for the political order lies in its ability to protect the individual rights of the citizens and to discipline those in power by giving opposition laws a legitimate place to participate in politics.Fukuyama believes that both historical facts and theoretical feasibility indicate that there is a sequence of development among the three elements of political order.The first step is to build the state,establish the effective state and bureaucratic system,then determine the relevant system of the rule of law,and finally develop the democratic accountability.Fukuyama argues for the disadvantages of developing democracy "prematurely" in the absence of an effective state,mainly through the political evolution of particular countries in history.Fukuyama’s ideological basis for proposing a sequence of political development is the belief that institutions can be borrowed and replicated,and that such borrowing and replication is not bound by historical factors.The opposite concept of political order is political disorder.There is a process of change between order and disorder,and the process is political decay.Fukuyama summarizes its form in two categories: one is the disconnection between the system and the external environment in terms of the frequency of change,that is,the rigidity of the system;the other is the restoration of the family system,which undermines the principle of the "impersonal" system.Fukuyama believes that the current political decay in the US mainly falls in the latter category.In addition,Fukuyama sees another manifestation of political decay in the US as voter division and populist politics resulting from identity politics.By applying the research method of historical politics,this thesis argues that some of the ideas in Fukuyama’s theory of political order are debatable.First,Fukuyama’s application of comparative history analysis methods has the problem of "heavy comparison over history",and the selection of comparison objects is not scientific enough.Second,Fukuyama misreads China.There are two aspects.On the one hand,Fukuyama’s positioning of China’s "premature modern state" is value-oriented: premature "maturity" led to premature "decline",and he did not recognize the social structure in Chinese history.change;on the other hand,Fukuyama failed to realize that China’s modernization transformation is composed of multiple logics,not only the revolutionary theory of Marxism,but also Chinese traditional culture.Third,from the perspective of world political history,the imperialist dominated order has not disappeared,but has become more invisible.Transplanting and replicating the systems of developed countries is,on the surface,the transfer of systems.However,in terms of the qualifying conditions of the "space-time system",systems have their own space-time conditions for growth and survival,and the conditions cannot be replicated or transplanted.The overall assessment of Fukuyama’s theory of political order in this thesis is that it expands the historical perspective of the theory of the state,provides an overview of the formation and development of the constituent elements of political order,with a particular focus on the capacity of the state,and reiterates the importance of the state in political development from a historical and practical perspective.Fukuyama’s sharply pointing out the political decay of the American political system reflects the realistic concern and responsibility of a political scholar.However,Fukuyama still did not break away from the inherent ideological bias,which makes his theory low in feasibility and too idealistic.