Following Fukuyama’s theory the United States would continue their current ways of attempting to bring about democracy in far away countries, such as Iraq, even if the cost may seem too steep for the American people at the time. While it will take a prolonged period of time for the entire world to have democratic-like governments the pros of such an event would certainly outweigh the cons for the United States, as well as the majority of the world. Another problem though, along with the time it would take, is the fact that other forms of government, such as communism, may creep into countries momentarily, thus leading to the rule of democracy to take even longer.
Even with these negatives, the possibility of having a world that completely uses democracy or some form of it as its government is something that the United States would be mistaken not to pursue. In a world full of democracy, there would be fewer conflicts because all the people of the world would voice their opinion, rather than only a few radicals per country. And if the United States would employ this foreign policy theory, the chance of any types of dictatorships or other forms of government forming in an all democratic world are very slim, and closer to none considering the United States could intervene to stop such a thing.
Some people argue though, that Fukuyama shows an “American-style” democracy, and this type of democracy is the only correct system of policies and that all countries must follow this exact type of government style. This is a misconception though; Fukuyama says that only in the future there will be more and more kinds of governments that use the framework of parliamentary democracy, which is characterized by no clear separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, and contain markets of some sort. Fukuyama says that The End of History was never supposed to link specific American models of social organization. He believes the European Union more accurately reflects what the world will look like at the end of history opposed to the contemporary United States.
While the idea of having a world full of democracy sounds good on paper, it will be very tedious to obtain. The United States needs to continue in Iraq until they have a stable democracy before we can move on to other countries, such as Iran. The threat of terrorism doesn’t help the United States reach its goal in anyway. So our President must not only persist in Bush’s efforts in trying to stop terrorism, but also do more. By being able to stop the spread of terrorism by means such as taking out the terror group leaders, democracy will surely follow in countries of the Middle East.
While terrorism may be holding back democracy in the Middle East, countries such as China and Africa are facing other roadblocks toward democracy. Africa is so far behind the rest of the world in almost every aspect possible. Some actually feel that if Africa no longer existed, no one would really even notice. Bringing Africa into the 21st century will take a lot of time and effort. China, on the other hand, is a modern country, but it faces many problems as well. If the United States and other countries use the Olympics say, as well as other standards, as a way of showing their disregard to China’s lack of respect for the human people it may be the event that puts the wheels in motion for democracy in China.
Although there is an extreme increase in Democratic based governments, the only real competitor in this idea is the Islamic Fundamentalism and its rise. This is a political and social movement in Muslim countries of North America, the Middle East, and South Asia. Although we may see this type of fundamentalism as a harsh interpretation of reaching one’s goals through violence, the majority of Islamic activists work to help the society. The ranks of Islamic fundamentalists provide much-needed service to the poor, although at the extreme end there are groups such as al-Qaeda. Although this type of governing is growing, Fukuyama believes that “either they will become democracies with a Muslim society such as Turkey, or they will simply disintegrate”. (p142)
Francis Fukuyama’s theory of the end of the history can be used by the United States to make the world a better place for humans and their rights. While the intention of whipping out other forms of government sounds ideal, no one knows what kind of new problems this will lead to. The end of history, as we know it, will come about in the future, but the events that happen will live on forever, for better or worse.
