‘Trust — the social virtues and the creation of prosperity’

Abstract

Francis Fukuyama, although not formally trained in economics, has addressed some important economic and social issues in a manner understandable to the general public. In his first book, the bestseller The End of History and the Last Man (1992), he bluntly stated that capitalism had triumphed over communism largely due to the spread of liberal democracy, free market ideas, and the demise of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In his recent book, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (1995), Fukuyama extends this theme by praising neoclassical economists for having convinced large parts of the global political and intellectual community that free markets provide the most effective mechanism for bringing prosperity. Fukuyama's studies of culture as a major contributing source and explanatory variable of varying prosperity around the world are discussed.