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Essay / Fundamentalism and nationalism were great threats...
In The End of History?, written at the end of the Cold War, Fukuyama argues that with the collapse of communism and the Union Soviet, this history in terms of ideological differences had come to an end. What does this mean? Fukuyama believed that the liberal democracies that the Western world and Europe had also become accustomed to were reaching their peak, their peak. It had started to spread throughout the world. He believed that over time, each society would adapt its ideologies to converge toward varying degrees of liberal democracy. According to Fukuyama, there will no longer be any real adversaries of liberalism and history, in the ideological sense, is therefore over. In the 21st century, there have been many examples of potential competition with liberalism, as evidenced by the emergence of social democracy and the push for welfare states as well as varying degrees of fundamentalism and nationalism all over the world. Fukuyama believed that all societies were converging toward democracy and capitalism and that the world was beginning to adopt the ideas and principles of Western liberalism, capitalism, and materialism. He argued that “liberal democracy remains the only coherent political aspiration that spans different regions and cultures across the world.” (Mapping the political landscape p.323). Although Fukuyama believes that with the fall of communism and fascism, liberal democracy finally took its rightful place as the just ideology in the world, he seems to have overlooked the overall flexibility of liberal ideologies as well as capitalism and materialism. Fukuyama's thesis is that his idea of liberal democracy is very Americanized. The problem with this view is that physical freedom, particularly the freedom to participate in and influence government, has been on the rise around the world since the 1990s, but it should be noted that democracy and economic success do not do not always go hand in hand. China has shown that democracy is not necessary for economic growth and prosperity. She simply took the idea that suited her best from liberal ideologies and applied it to their system. Is the story over? This is not the case, because societies, even those as advanced as those in the United States, have still not found the right balance for thriving globally and for individuals to call home. . What will continue to happen is that we will continue to learn, debate, argue and find solutions as a global community, a community more integrated and more connected than it was when Fukuyama believed that the story was over..