Fukyuama's main argument is that, in the West, the "left" has basically been defeated. Their main policy ideas are unaffordable, and incompatible with the growth that is required to pay for them. A return to social democracy is unlikely. Fukyuama is unhappy with this. He argues that a new alternative must arise so that economic liberalism has a challenger. In the U.S., the main political movement that has arisen in response to the Financial Crisis has been right-wing populism.
One of the most puzzling features of the world in the aftermath of the financial crisis is that so far, populism has taken primarily a right-wing form, not a left-wing one....In the United States, for example, although the Tea Party is anti-elitist in its rhetoric, its members vote for conservative politicians who serve the interests of precisely those financiers and corporate elites they claim to despise.
Ultimately, he argues, it is democracy that is at stake.
AM: One has to agree that the political influence of financeers has unsettling implications for democracy. But the answer to this may be more capitalism, not less. Perhaps this is the new ideology? One that would seek to separate government influence from the market, and vice versa, through a reduction in the size and scope of government and employing market mechanisms, like competition and choice, as a way to curb corporate excess.
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