Francis Fukuyama and ‘the end of history’ debate

ABSTRACT

’The end of history’ is a phrase which is associated with the philosophy of Hegel and Marx. The return of the phrase to contemporary political discourse was recently made, to considerable debate, by an American political scientist, Francis Fukuyama, in the context of the worldwide crisis of communism. This paper examines Fukuyama's assertion that the enthusiastic acceptance of liberal democracy in Eastern bloc countries represents the final waning of Marxism‐Leninism and, as such, indicates an ‘end to history’.