FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Classical Liberalism on the Line POLITICAL SCIENTIST FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
engages in a critical and timely discussion of classical liberalism, why it remains one of the most influential political ideologies of the past millennium, and why its challenges from the left and the right will determine the path of the 21st century. From the May 16, 2022 program “Francis Fukuyama: Liberalism and Its Discontents.” This program is supported by the Ken & Jaclyn Broad Family Fund. FRANCIS FUKUYAMA, Ph.D., Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Author, Liberalism and Its Discontents
TIM MILLER: [Your] book is Liberalism and Its Discontents, so I would like to start the conversation by defining our term, specifically liberalism. For those of you that don’t know, I’m a former, never-Trump Republican type. As a college Republican growing up, liberal was a dirty word for me. You know, it meant San Francisco taxhiking tree huggers. And then as I’ve come to read your book, I was like, actually, I think liberalism is the opposite of a dirty word. And it turns out I might be a liberal. But over in Europe, obviously an opposite definition. So when we talk about the discontents of liberalism, what are you talking about specifically? FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Sure. That’s very important, because I definitely don’t mean it in that American sense. I mean it in the sense of the doctrine that really got its start in the middle of the 17th century after the European wars of religion. At that point, Europeans had been killing each other for about 150 years over whether they are Protestant or Catholic or what sect of Protestantism. At that point, a number of thinkers said, “Well, maybe we shouldn’t actually be killing ourselves over these concepts of the good life, and lower the horizons of politics to life itself and to protect each citizen in their personal security, and agree to disagree.” That’s a doctrine that is associated with certain institutions, the most important of which is a rule of law. These are rules that protect individuals from state power and limit what executive authorities can do, through constitutional checks and balances. It is really designed to enable individuals to exercise choice, moral choice, autonomy. That’s what gives them dignity. Liberalism says we’re all equal human beings, universally, because we do have this capacity for moral choice. And that’s really what the government needs to protect. It’s not associated with a particular economic policy. So on the right, you have libertarianism, which is not what I consider liberalism. That’s kind of a funny, uniquely
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THE COMMO N WE AL TH | June/July 2022
PHOTO BY ED RITGER.
TIM MILLER, Founder, Light Fuse Communications; Contributor, The Bulwark; Communications Director, Jeb Bush 2016; Author, Why We Did It (Forthcoming)
