Brilliantly dispassionate

This is the second volume in a two-volume set in which Fukuyama analyses the development of political institutions throughout history. The earlier volume looked at such development up to the Industrial Revolution, and that is the point at which this second volume picks up, bringing us right up to 2014 when this volume was published. It isn’t, however, necessary to have listened to the first volume for this volume to be worthwhile.

This is, by Fukuyama’s own confession, a “backwards-looking” book; it diagnoses the problems of political decay rather than attempting to offer solutions to complex problems.

And this is one of the book’s great strengths. Although Fukuyama clearly has his own views and his own sympathies and antipathies toward particular political systems, he isn’t opinionated about it. He doesn’t see either free-market capitalism or communism as some sort of panacea, or regard either liberal democracy or authoritarianism as entirely good or entirely bad. This dispassionate approach to political systems invests the work with a real authority.

Though an academic work, it is well-paced and interesting. The writing, although it necessarily uses much technical language, is straightforward and ‘lay’; it never descends into the academic mumbo-jumbo that characterizes much contemporary ‘soft science’ (e.g., social science) literature.

Narration

Jonathan Davis does achieve the most important thing in narration, which is to be clear; I seldom had to rewind to catch what he had said (though I often did in order to follow Fukuyama’s argument).

However, his pronunciation of the many foreign terms and phrases in this book is frequently annoying. He seems to be OK with Spanish and Italian, but he generally makes a hash of anything in French or German. And even when narrating in English, he often puts completely the wrong emphasis on a sentence, and sometimes pauses inappropriately.

In spite of these faults, for its content this an audiobook well worth engaging with for anybody interested in how political institutions develop and how they decay. Also, much has happened in the seven years since its publication, and perhaps an updated version wouldn’t be amiss.

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Good overview of how society functions

The performance is a bit dry, but the concepts are very well explained. Well worth it.

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it was a good book for liberal democracy

it was a good book for liberal democracy, but also for general applicability to government and statecraft. this was a good follow up to the first book and is largely accessible for the average interested listener.
take the time to listen with an open mind if you are opposed to liberalism all the same.

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Epic

Long and detailed but a great analysis and summary of the current political environments around the world and the issues they face.

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1 person found this helpful

Thought provoking read

Another powerful book by this author. This is neither an easy listening novel nor a highly referenced text book but covers the topic at an altitude where the reader can appraise the macro picture yet with some interesting specifics.

I'd recommend it if you like his past works.

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8 people found this helpful

The superior entry of the two volumes

The second volume of Fukuyama's update of Huntington's classic Political Order in changing societies turns out to be the superior entry to its predecessor, though it is not without its faults.
The first part of the book is overly detailed and at times repetitive, often with the main point buried under excessive elaboration, and as such, much may be lost in the process of "getting to Denmark" or rather, getting through the verbiage.
However, that is the only major flaw. If one perseveres, one finds one of the strongest analyses of the origins of rule of law, the cultural foundations of the Chinese state, an examination of progressive era US politics, the ongoing decay in modern US politics, and analyses of contemporary China and India.
On this basis, Fukuyama's work has become invaluable in the modern world of political science, and helps one understand the cultural differences that result in different forms of the modern state.
In some ways something of an intellectual atonement for his rather triumphalist argument that Liberal Democracy represents the End of History.
Rather, this work is an examination that history flows in an endless myriad of directions, and one should get to grips with understanding them, and this book provides a compelling guide.
The narration by Jonathan Davis can be slightly monotone at times, but otherwise is clear and to the point.

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9 people found this helpful

Very informative and interesting.

One small issue. At one point in the last chapter it says "North Korea" when it should say "South Korea".

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Fascinating insight into political development and decay

This book is well structured and gives insight into mechanisms of political development and political decay of the countries and nations around the world throughout history. This gives valuable insight into where we are now, direction of travel and some of the main challenges of preventing or controlling decay and encouraging development.

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4 people found this helpful

Fascinating

Everyone interested in politics should hear this book! A comprehensive look at how political systems evolved around the world and what insights we gain from understanding this

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Succint and ambitious

Very clear and broad in scope, recommendable as overview and introduction.

great perspective and thought provoling

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3 people found this helpful