Fukuyama The End Of History Analysis

Introduction

Fukuyama’s ‘The End of History’ (1989) thesis holds the firm belief that the history of ideological struggles has come to an end. The ideological struggles that he expanded on are specifically on the power play between the Western ideas and its rivals – communism and fascism. He claims that the Western political form, liberal democracy, will be implemented world-wide as the “final form of human government.” (Fukuyama, 1989, pg. 4)

The Western ideologies of democracy in politics and capitalism in economics have been spread across the globe due to colonization in the past and globalization in the present. Fukuyama’s claim was supported by Samuel Huntington’s research on the upward trend in the number of countries adopting democratic.

The small city-state does not subscribe to the extreme ends of the political ideology spectrum. It is not quite democratic nor is it strong authoritarian, hence its name ranges from benevolent dictatorship to soft authoritarian under Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership.

The case of Singapore will not support Fukuyama’s argument that history has ended because pragmatism, which is what Singapore’s policies and politics are based on, posts a challenge to Fukuyama’s claim of a lack of viable alternative to the western liberalism. Singapore’s political structure is unlikely to transit to the celebrated democracy by the West due to the agents of the society being comfortable at the current governing and practical values that Singaporeans embrace. At best, Singapore is and will likely remain democratic in name and this goes against Fukuyama’s prediction of the future.

In this essay, we will delve into Fukuyama’s claim of the end of ideological struggles on the political arena while touching on capitalism

These ‘carrots’ offered by the state sate the citizens’ satisfaction and thus, they give their obedience to the state and the legitimacy for the state to rule over them. This will not realize Fukuyama’s statement of the political system to become democracy.

Transition to Democracy

Furthermore, the chances that Singapore will transit to democracy that the West favoured, due to the four main actors of a nation is unlikely. These people do not have any motivation to move the nation from its current political structure to democracy. The four main actors are the middle class, the capitalist class, the working class and the disunity within the main political party PAP.

Firstly, the largest class is the middle class in Singapore. However, despite being more educated and political conscious, these white-collared workers’ main concern is to improve on their own standard of living to achieve the upper class, yet not fall back to the lower class. They still embraced materialistic values as seen from the votes mentioned in the above two elections. They may be more vocal regarding their thoughts; however, it is limited to social media platforms. Hence, it is not plausible for the middle class to lead a revolutionary change to western liberal