Papers on "The European State" and similar term paper topics

Paper #095458 :: The European State
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A critical study regarding the concept of 'the end of history' and a reflection on the current policies of the 'West'.

Written in 2006; 20,513 words; 17 sources; APA; $ 249.95

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at the European state from the perspective of Francis Fukuyama's famous lecture "The End of History?". The paper discusses the idea of the end of history and the triumph of liberalism. The paper further reviews why democracy has failed in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The paper also discusses whether the 'democratic nation-state' has a future.

Outline:
The World of Ideas:
The End of History ?
Ideologies
Democracy and Tyranny
Realism
Pre-Modern Societies:
The Pressure of the West
Definition
Democratic Failure
New Authoritarianism
Modernity:
The 'New Managerial State'
World Government
Modern Societies
The Need for Ideologies

From the Paper:

"Writing in 1989 before the collapse of the Berlin wall, Francis Fukuyama declared in his article "The end of History ?" that the flow of events that had occurred lately constituted the ultimate proof of the total victory of the idea of liberalism. The exhaustion of systematic viable alternatives - or alternative ideologies - to economic and political liberalism, such as fascism and communism, showed that liberal democracy was the perfect, ultimate ideology. This perfect idea could by no means be seriously challenged by other ideologies - and the total defeat of fascism and communism in the 20th century proved it - nor could it be improved in any way since liberal democracy was already in itself a perfection. The total victory of this ideology in the realm of ideas would necessarily lead to "the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government" (Fukuyama, 1989:2). This belief of the spread of Western liberal democracy around the globe (or in the material world), along with the belief that liberal democracies do not fight one against the other because they are interdependent and tied by the 'common marketization' result in the assertion that the number of major conflicts will decrease dramatically and that the main concern of international life will no longer be politics or military strategics but technical issue-solving economics. History, defined as the History of ideology (Hegel), has come to an end, at least for the part of the world that has realized the principles of liberal democracy. The former alleged inner contradictions of liberalism have been resolved by the decreasing importance of the class issue. At the time Fukuyama wrote this article, it was followed by a major outcry and criticism. But the idea was not new. Actually, Fukuyama admits that he has merely resurrected the idea of Georg Friedrich Hegel who, in 1806, following the battle of Jena, and the victory of Napoleon's army, declared that History has come to an end. Hegel saw History as a dialectical process with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The History of ideas shows that mankind (or 'the Spirit') "has progressed through a series of primitive stages of consciousness (the last stage being the stage of philosophy) on his path to the present and that these stages corresponded to concrete forms of social organization" (tribal, slave owning, theocratic, finally democratic egalitarian societies). In the stage of philosophy the Spirit is self-conscious, that is to say that the Spirit knows itself as a Spirit, through philosophy. And this ultimate stage corresponds to the social organization of liberal democracy and its universalization. We know young Hegel's admiration for the French Revolution and we can easily understand his excitement at the idea that those revolutionary principles would finally be realized and spread, thanks to Napoleon's victory. Those principles include liberty, equality, rational behaviour on the part of the individual. At that time, there was no viable alternatives to these ideas. Other ideologies came later... to finally disappear, hence postponing the awareness that History has actually come to an end in 1806. On the other hand, we can also assume that young Hegel was also longing for a nation-state embodied by France, and which a liberal democracy implies. (He also looked at the Prussian monarchy with admiration). But the end of History at the time of Hegel did not necessarily imply the same thing, as long as the state was concerned, as the end of History at the time of Fukuyama, as I have already mentioned and I shall return to this point later."

Tags: End History Theories Imperialism Building Third World Conflict

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