Part V, Chapters 29-30 Summary and Analysis

Part V is called "Toward a Theory of Political Development." In the final two chapters, Fukuyama summarizes some of the central themes of his history of political development. Chapter 29 is called "Political Development and Political Decay." Fukuyama rests his theory on the assumption that humans are naturally social animals who did not invent societies but naturally formed them. He sees an evolutionary mechanism behind political development, with features that work being passed along and those that fail being abandoned. Political decay is also part of the process, however, and states can revert to earlier kinds of organization. The existence of ideas and institutions are also necessary parts of political development.

Chapter 30 is called "Political Development, Then and Now." Fukuyama finishes this first volume of his projected two-volume work just before the French Revolution, which was...