Communism And The End Of History

In his article, ‘The Worldwide Liberal Revolution’ he emphasizes on liberalization, democracy, and communism, authoritarian and totalitarian governments. He adds that there has been a much quieter revolution occurring over the past twenty or thirty odd years. This may be seen in the exceptional economic growth in East Asia since World War II.

“The End of History” is an article by Francis Fukuyama in which he argues that the beginning of Western Liberal democracy could be interpreted as the “end of history”. In essence he is arguing that democratic liberalism is the final product of human politics. Once this is achieved there will be a few remain issues, however all minimal. In addition to analyzing Fukuyama’s argument I will also be analyzing John Gaddis’ “The Long Peace” which addresses the structural elements of stability.

Francis Fukuyama; political scientist, economist, and author, in his article “The End of History?” discusses he rise and fall of major ideologies such as absolutism, fascism and communism, and suggests that human history should be viewed in terms of a battle of ideologies which has reached its end in the universalization of Western liberal democracy. Fukuyama concludes that the idea of Western liberal democracy has triumphed in the world through a variety of different ways and is a thriving piece of world order today. However, there are certain flaws to his argument including a US- centric view on the events of the twentieth century.

In being so, liberalism possesses both economic and political components. Economic liberalism argues that, increasing economic interdependence would lead to a more peaceful international realm. Political liberalism bases itself on the belief that ‘A just world order assumes the establishment of republics ’. Thus, political liberalism as practiced by the United States during Cold War becomes a critical proponent of democracy promotion by noting that overlapping national interests will allow for a tamer international environment, engendering the notion that democracies do not engage in wars. Although democracy as interpreted by liberal theory on its own does not lead to free market, it may create the necessary infrastructure for such an event to occur. The promotion of democracy, to a great extent, increases economic interdependence through the alignment of core national values and therefore decreasing the probability of hegemony between the states. However, The notion of liberalism was undermined in the literature of the United States foreign policy after the Cold War. Even though the states were economically interdependent during the Cold War yet they engaged in rivalry for resources to the extent that if, assumingly, the “World Trade Organization” came to be perceived as a corrupt institution,

Communism played a major role shaping the 20th century, both for the East and the United States. Its impact can be seen in the US from 1919 to the 1990s and even today. The spread of Communist ideals in the East meant the beginning of the socialist state and mass industrialization. Its effect on the US was much different. The United States people, heavily diversified of all races, religions, and financial statuses, became extremely jingoistic as a result of competition with the USSR. This nationalism became unhealthy as citizens began determining what was “un-American.” The Communist Party USA was not successful in their primary objective of spreading communism to the US. What they did achieve however was hugely important. They showed that citizens of the United States could be scared out of their own freedom. That fear would lead them to give up “liberty and justice for all”. Still a highly misunderstood idea, it is important for citizens of the United States to understand what communism is and what impact the CPUSA and other communist organizations had on the country.

Communist had a long history during the 20th century, and communism was very influential. Almost all of Asia and East Europe became Communist. From the start of the theory then many civil wars in Russia affected the whole world. Communist defined the idea of itself in many different ways, it helps many nations came together formed a party fought wars, but it also made many countries became really poor, and the economy in most of the countries got pushed back about 10 years. Communism is an economic and political system that sought to create an egalitarian society; it collapsed because of personal interest and government’s corruption.

The era that preceded the formation of the Soviet Union was earmarked with social unrest, famine, and failed governments. After many struggles, many smaller soviet republics joined to form a large conglomerate nation, known as the Soviet Union in 1922. Vladimir Lenin, leader at the time, replaced the failing capitalist government with a communist government. . At the end of WWII, most of Eastern and Central Europe’s countries were being occupied by the soviet army. They came to be controlled by the Soviet government and pulled back behind an “iron Curtain”. Winston Churchill’s famed Iron curtain remark refers to the countries that fell under the spell of the Soviet Union and shut out the western world ways of capitalism. The countries of

The Cold War’s outcome defined the United States of America as the world’s leading power after a period of proxy wars against the USSR. The two nations employed opposing ideologies with different beliefs and policies, yet sharing the same aspirations for global influence. What ultimately toppled the Soviet Union was the onset of globalization as its isolationist regime made it laborious for the nation to evolve. As Kofi Annan said it during the 53rd DPI/NGO conference, “arguing against globalization is like arguing against the law of gravity”. It can be inferred that the essence of human nature is based on freedom and therefore people naturally seek liberty (Flew, 1991). Socialist policies were depriving Soviet citizens of (what the west would consider) their basic needs such as freedom of speech or freedom to roam. The US accentuated the need for a freer world by introducing the Marshall Plan and the Truman doctrine - compelling the world to follow suit. Indeed, the current global structure shows that most nations, including former socialist countries, have adopted US-style free market policies and democratic elections. In addition, treaties such as NATO were signed which united multiple countries yet weakened the Soviet Union, affecting its economy indirectly, eventually leading to its dissolution.

Marx, allegedly revising Hegel, once said history repeats itself “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” In light of recent events, perhaps another revision is necessary. In his book First as tragedy, then as farce, Zizek states that Liberalism died twice, first as a political doctrine, and then as an economic one. The deaths being The Attacks of September 11th and the 2008 economic crash. The Paris Attacks has shown that History repeats itself thrice. First as tragedy, then as farce, and finally as a Weird Tale.

The common idea linking these two articles is Fukuyama theory - end of the world, that describes the process which started after the collapse of the Soviet Union. More and more countries around the world turned to the democratic system of government and eventually, the liberal democratic model will rule the world. The first article is talking about how the radical Islam tries to challenge the liberal democratic values but with not success, and the second article discuss the reasons

To begin with Francis Fukuyama's, provocative thesis, that after the fall of communism in Europe and the withering of the grand ideological contests, history too has ended. In his "end of history" theory, he maintained that the western liberal democracy had become the `final form of human government'. The fact is that though not all theorists have this kind of a faith in liberal democracy, and believe that it's not the only feasible form of democracy, they are in a minority. The theoretical circles and the popular discourse have been dominated by "liberal democracy."

Everyone would like to live in a perfect society, and in Germany, Karl Marx set out to do just that by creating the government system known as Communism. Though, this system has failed in many countries all over the world because of many significant flaws in the very foundation of the system. Some of the most feared probabilities in society that Communism was created to eliminate still prevailed and were at the heart of the system’s downfall. If the system was infallible, why were so many of its principles created out of the fear of rebellion? The living conditions of the people were unbearable and would lead to nothing but rebellion. The whole system was full of corruption and had no moral standards. Communism has failed in many countries

In conclusion, however, I find that it is not a meaningful argument to examine if ‘the end of history’ has indeed taken place, simply because Francis Fukuyama has set the basis of his theory too wide. People will naturally gravitate towards having more options in their lives, be it socially, economically or in this case, politically. This tendency would thus make Fukuyama’s ‘end of history’ irrefutable. The more pertinent question to explore would be how the end goal of liberal democracy can be properly managed, with it being based on the twin principles of liberty and equality. At this end point of history as we know it, trade-offs have to be made between the two- equality cannot be achieved without the actions of a state controlling liberty, while liberty cannot be attained fully without social inequality. The end of history has dawned, where there would be no further meaningful challenge to liberal democracy, but a new battle awaits with the conundrum of balance between liberty and equality in liberal

As an example the author describes the economical changes in Asia. Fukuyama believes that to ascribe those changes only to the needs and ideas of maximum benefice to everyone is short-sided and that values and moral, such as “work-ethic” or “frugality” are essential to understand why changes happen, otherwise we would be ignoring the “role of ideas” (Fukuyama, End of History) in these events. Fukuyama points out for instance that “Economical Liberalism” does not create “Liberal Politics”, because both concepts are the result of separate and prior “conciousness” (Fukuyama, End of History). Fukuyama quest for predicting the “End of History” goes on to determine the greatest challenges to the “Western Liberal Democracy”, Fascism and

Since the post-World War 1 period, Liberalism has been actively advanced by Western (or 'first-world') states as a desirable system of political theory. According to Dunne (in Baylis & Smith 2001, pp. 163), the basis for its appeal stems from the fact that Liberalism is viewed as inherently 'optimistic', making it a natural counter-theory to the Realist theories advanced by practitioners of realpolitik in the past (feudalism, dictatorships etc.). What makes Liberalism 'optimistic' in a sense is that, as an ideology, it is fundamentally anchored around the liberty of the individual, and furthermore, strives for global peace. Considering the rampant destruction and bloodshed experienced by many of the states involved in both the World Wars,