Summary Of The End Of History

The fall of the Soviet Union, which led to the democratization of Russia, shows that the world is moving towards democratic liberalism as described by Francis Fukuyama in his article “The End of History?”. Russia is one of the key countries to examine when looking at the theory because they have been one of the most resistant to change. The article “What is Civil? ‘New Russia’ and the Democratic Predicament” by William Rosenberg describes how Russia has changed since they have embraced democratic liberalism. Russia was one of the biggest challengers to the theory of “The End of History”; however, by examining these two articles the truth behind the theory that the world will all move towards democratic liberalism can be seen. By considering

The country has started to develop a free market system. Rosenberg stated: “democratization as a means to material abundance became linked to free and unregulated markets in Russia” (Rosenberg), this means that as the free market has developed, material things have become important. Rosenberg argues that the key to the reform that occurred was the link between politics and the economy. The market not being tied to the government led to products being more abundant, and therefore the prices went down to a reasonable price. His article said that Yeltsin had accepted the ideas of privatization and market reform as key to a successful country. He argued that self-interest in “The End of History” therefore it was necessary to allow the market process to be controlled by private citizens and businesses. He believed that in order for liberal democracy to work, citizens had to want the best for

According to Rosenberg, a process similar to shock therapy was used in the transition. The prices that occurred during the liberalization created many shocks to the citizens. While the prices for certain products were still regulated, prices on other products increased dramatically. As a consequence in the beginning of the Russian free market, there was a tremendous amount of fraud, although the economy eventually recovered to a more normal level of success (Rosenberg). Fukuyama predicted that Russia would eventually join the rest of the world in liberal democracy because of their need to be superior. If they did not adapt to what most of the world considered fair practices, other countries would not want to conduct business deals with them. If other countries had refused to work with them, their country would not be able to remain an important economic global