American Democracy, World Peace and the China Model—A Critical Analysis of Francis Fukuyama's “At the ‘End of History’ Still Stands Democracy”

ABSTRACT

In “At the ‘End of History’ Still Stands Democracy,” Francis Fukuyama proposes that there has been no serious threat to his idea that Western style democracy is the “end of history” and that the United States does not damage global stability. Through analyzing and criticizing the main ideas of Francis Fukuyama, the conclusion is drawn that the China model is a powerful proof against his view of the “end of history.” The tension in European and Asian regions is due to the instigation of the United States who in the 20 years since the end of the Cold War has wantonly launched wars under the excuse that human rights enjoy priority over sovereignty. Besides, a series of financial and economic crises in the Western world expose a set of disadvantages of capitalism, showing that human history has not ended up with the Western capitalist political system.

KEYWORDS:

• Political system
• end of history
• democratic freedom
• China model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Cheng Enfu (following Chinese practice, the surname, Cheng, is placed first) is Professor and Director of the Research Center of Economic and Social Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Chairman of the World Association for Political Economy. He is also Chief Editor of two English language journals International Critical Thought and World Review of Political Economy.

Xie Chang'an (following Chinese practice, the surname, Xie, is placed first) is a doctoral candidate at the Center for Economics of the Shanghai School, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China.

Notes

1 Fukuyama, having little comprehension of the labor theory of value, opposes Thomas Piketty, and says,

The rich tend to get richer not just because of higher returns to capital, as the French economist Thomas Piketty has argued, but because they have superior access to the political system and can use their connections to promote their interests. (Fukuyama 2014a)

What he said expresses his admission that the Western political system serves money politics. In addition, we should ask: can the relations to political systems produce wealth?

2 For the statistics of Japanese government debt, see, http://www.asianmetal.cn/news/viewNews.am?newsId=1618012.