Francis Fukuyama

Political scientist and writer Francis Fukuyama offers a defence of a revitalised liberalism for the 21st century and sets out the principles needed to rebuild faith in classical liberalism.

Liberalism – based on the principles of equality, the rule of law, and the rights of individuals to pursue their own happiness without encroachment from government – has been attacked by conservatives and progressives. It is under increasing threat from authoritarianism, identity politics, social media and a weakened free press. Fukuyama looks at how liberalism evolved into neoliberalism and at the challenges to liberalism from modern technology and the need for national identity.

Fukuyama is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His books include Political Order and Political Decay; The Origins of Political Order; and Identity. In The End of History and the Last Man he famously declared that liberal democracy was the final form of human government.