BOOKS Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. Francis Fukuyama (Hamish Hamilton) FRANCIS Fukuyama's wide-ranging book about new realities in world economics is a fascinating insight into what he refers to as 'the death of history'.
This death he defines as the victory of the power of free-market economics over political systems such as communism, fascism and monarchy.
In fact, this new philosophy is an admission that political philosophy cannot win over the irresistible force of the human desire to better one's own condition and that human beings will always struggle against an idealised model because people are not ideal beings.
It is a refreshing idea because it admits people cannot be forced to act against their nature, but it's also quite daunting in that it suggests utopias are unobtainable, and that human society will always be imperfect and unequal.
Fukuyama also examines the idea each society adds its own peccadillos to the free markets around the world and argues countries which naturally possess a high degree of trust fare better in today's world than family-based societies.
He says the best examples of such high trust societies are Germany and Japan, where citizens are given greater responsibility by authority and therefore are allowed to think more freely and can adapt more readily to present market conditions.