The New York Times best-selling author of The Origins of Political
Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its
origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international
affairs of state
In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in
decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest
groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to
power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and
authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire
international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic
connection to "the people", who are usually defined in narrow identity
terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large
parts of the population as a whole.
Demand for recognition of one's identity is a master concept that
unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal
recognition on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly
challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion,
sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant
populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious "identity
liberalism" of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism.
Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually
springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be
satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be
transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports
rather than undermines democracy.
Identity is an urgent and necessary book - a sharp warning that unless
we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom
ourselves to continuing conflict.
