“Origins of Political Order“

To understand the political systems we live in we need to know the events that shaped them. Francis Fukuyama examines the paths different societies took to reach their current form of political order. Using diverse studies like economy, anthropology and geography, Fukuyama gives shape to The Origins of Political Order, a wide perspective of how politics ended as they are. Nations are not trapped in their past, but events that happened hundreds, and even thousands, of years ago still affect us today.

Francis Fukuyama wrote this book as an update account of Samuel Huntington’s book: Political Order in Changing Societies. Hunting was Fakuyama´s mentor and when he past away, Fakuyama dedicated The Origins of Polical Order to him. He wanted to stay trustful to the orginal book and the ideas of his mentor but he mange to create a work with his own signature and style. The Origins of Political Order displays the “big picture“ of what we know today as democracy, state, and law.

Fakuyama wants the reader to undestand the essences, the true origins, of where our need of political organizations comes from whether we are social or individualistic animals. The first chapter of the book are about pre-modern times studying our evolution of individual to social being with our families and later with more people. The first chapters touch subjects like biology, political philosophy and antropology.

A small introduction is made to Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. These three gentlemen were pioneers to what we now acknowledge as modern politics. Hobbes with his Leviathan and how we are “antisocial beings forced to cooperate by necessity”. Locke who believed in our good nature of social beings. And Rousseau with the social contract. With a few paragraph Francis Fukuyama validates Locke´s point of view. Showing research of how our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, also have hierarchies. That is an inherent part of our nature as social animals. Fakuyama takes the time to write a concise introduction of the individual to then revele into his real interests. After four small chapters on how individuals conform themselves, history takes place.

The Origins of Political Order is devoted to how the state, the rule of law and the state happened to evolve independently in different societies before their emerge in 18th-century Britain. He speaks briefly about empires, city-states or feudalism. Fukuma sees no origins in the actual political order in the way empires were ruled, cities of state were created and feudalism functioned. He thinks of them as transcendental subjects for this reading. But Fukuyama rejects reductionist of economic or technological structure but sometimes he seems to forget the relevance of past events too “It is impossible to develop any meaningful theory of political development without treating ideas as fundamental causes of why societies differ and follow distinct development paths.”

Fakuyama mentions nothing of pre-Columbian America and dedicates merely a few pages African politics. He didn’t wanted to wander much from the main subject but personally I believe they were worth a couple of paragraphs. Maybe he could mention how this new ways of organization of power modified cultures or how they fought with the past structure they once had. If he mentions a little of feudalism maybe he could have written a small paragraph of pre Columbian America and Africa.

The Origins in Political Order doesn´t forget religion though. “Religion can never be explained simply by reference to prior material conditions.” He touches this field carefully “religion can never be explained simply by reference to prior material conditions.” Because religion implemented morality the rule of law arose. Which became a tool to create order. Through religion people adapted to live by certain laws established by the society. The phenomenon of the separation of state and church is something recent. Before this, the two powers were considered one. An interesting chapter of the book talks about how Christianity helped abolish our inclination to only help family. Because Christianity teaches that we are all brothers and sisters. So this helped create a society in which cousins no longer got married and families made more contacts through marriages with other “blood“. The way he develops the transformation or separations of religion and state is really clear.

The four main pillars of modern politics of The Origins of Political Order are: China, India, Islam and the West. From which China and Europe are the ones who contributed the most to what we have as a political system today. He shows that the main strength or characteristic these nations had were their capacity to adapt. Social change affects political equilibrium. Adaptation is key for improvement. And Fakuyama often seems more interested in the ways human societies fail to achieve political order, or failed to adapt, than in the ways they succeed. The real question he wants to answer is not why nations did not failed but why the nations that “won“ didn’t ended up like the ones who “lost“. He uses the example of Hungary and England because they were so symilar culturally, the climate, historically but they ended so differently. Instead of studying the errors of Hungary, Fakuyama focuses in small reforms England made to overcome symilar problems that Hungary couldnt.

This book starts with the very beginning of mankind and ends in the beginning of the French and American revolutions. The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal. Written by one of the most admired political thinkers of today. The Origins of Political Order is fresh insights on the origins of democratic societies. It shows how it has develope, how has it changed and raises essential questions about the nature of politics and its discontents. He writes a toughtful historical reconstruction of how we got to this point. Though he shows the past patterns humanity has follow, Fakuyama sees our political future with optimism. He believes we are not doomed because humans do learn from past errors and are always trying to improve them. He has faith in modernity, capilalism and democracy.