Link to What's New This Week Practice Module on Fukuyama: Basic Concepts

Dear Habermas Logo and Link to Site Index A Justice Site

Practice Module

Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP - Archives

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: September 14, 2002
Latest Update: September 14, 2002
E-Mail Icon jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Site Teaching Modules Fukuyama: Basic Concepts

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, September 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

  1. Preparatory readings for module.

  2. Discussion questions.

    1. What does Fukuyama mean by the concept of "end of history."
    2. What does Fukuyama mean by social capital?
    3. What does Fukuyama mean by the concept of the "radius of trust?"
    4. What is venture capital? Is it social? Does it have a social aspect? What about access to venture capital for males and females?
    5. I don't agree with Fukuyama that liberal democracy is the ultimate answer and that capitalism as we practice it is here to stay. Does that mean that I don't need to bother reading Fukuyama? Explain.

  3. Experiential activities related to module.

    1. Think about the Bogardus social distance scale in terms of social capital. Use the Bogardus scale with some friends whom you're sure you won't offend, and ask them what they think the results of your survey indicate about solidarity in our society.
    2. Consider issues of social solidarity in terms of Fukuyama's radius of trust. Could you design a Bogardus Social Distance Scale that might give us some ideas to explore this issue? What measures would you use? Remember "who's coming to dinner?" Think of exchanges of clothing, of money, of food, of hugs, of compliments, of supportive statements. And then think of how you would categorize the people you'd want to learn about solidarity with. Would race be the best indicator? Notice I added the homeless. Would wealth be a good indicator? Bogardus social distance scale

  4. Self-test questions related to module.

    True or False? And explain briefly why it's true or false. (25 words or less)

    1. The End of History occurred with the tearng down of the Berlin Wall.
    2. The End of History represents the end to political progress.
    3. Social capital is the total budget available to the government for social welfare.
    4. A Marxist economy would clearly provide more social capital than a capitalist economy.
    5. The radius of trust is smaller in the postmodern world than it was in the modern.
    6. Fukuyama believes that the end of history has come like an apocalypse.
    7. J.P. Morgan would have agreed with the statement that "trust IS capital."
    8. Fukuyama would agree that we will continue to perfect systems of government until we find something beyond democracy which is more effective than democracy.
    9. Social capital makes exploitation practically impossible.
    10. Liberal democracy looks the other way at many of the abuses in our own system.

  5. Conceptual linking we had in mind as we prepared the module.

    • Liberal democracy
    • Capitalism; socialism; marxism in the political context of the Twenty-First Century
    • Trust, in particular, radius of trust
    • social capital
    • human capital

  6. References

Discussion Topics:

  1. What does Fukuyama mean by the "End of History?"

  2. What is social capital?

    jeanne's comments:

    I like Fukuyama's simple statement: "social capital is an instantiated informal norm that promotes cooperation between two or more individuals." "Instantiated" here might be best defined as giving a concrete example of . . . (instantiate) Find in What Is Social Capital? Internation Monetary Fund Conference. Link checked September 14, 2002.

    See also

    Fukuyama discusses role of social capitalBy Sean Formato. The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. Link checked September 14, 2002.

    Fukuyama suggests that we often confuse the actual relationship with derivative relationships. That is, that we confuse civil society with social capital. Civil society may be composed of relationships that are concrete examples of social capital, but civil society is not social capital in and of itself. (epiphenomenal)

    • What does Fukuyama mean by the concept of the "radius of trust?"