Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of ProsperityFree Press, 1995 - 457 pages In Trust, a sweeping assessment of the emerging global economic order "after History", Fukuyama examines a wide range of national cultures in order to divine the hidden principles that make a good and prosperous society, and his findings strongly challenge the orthodoxies of both left and right. In fact, economic life is pervaded by culture and depends, Fukuyama maintains, on moral bonds of social trust. This is the unspoken, unwritten bond between fellow citizens that facilitates transactions, empowers individual creativity, and justifies collective action. In the global struggle for economic predominance that is now upon us - a struggle in which cultural differences will become the chief determinant of national success - the social capital represented by trust will be as important as physical capital. But trust varies greatly from one society to another, and a map of how social capital is distributed around the world yields many surprises. The greatness of this country, he maintains, was built not on its imagined ethos of individualism but on the cohesiveness of its civil associations and the strength of its communities. But Fukuyama warns that our drift into a more and more extreme rights-centered individualism - a radical departure from our past communitarian tradition - holds more peril for the future of America than any competition from abroad. |
Contents
On the Human Situation at the End of History | 3 |
PART II | 12 |
The Twenty Percent Solution | 13 |
Copyright | |
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American argue Asian associations authority become businesses capital central century CHAPTER China Chinese church companies compared competitive Confucianism consequences contrast corporations costs countries create culture early economic economists efficient enterprises established ethical Europe example exist fact factory family businesses firms France French German groups growth habit higher Hong Kong human important individual industrial institutions interests Italy Japan Japanese keiretsu kind Korean labor larger less liberal manufacturing moral move nature obligation organizations particularly percent period political possible practice problem production rational relations relationships relatively result role rules scale sector sense share similar skills social society South Korea spontaneous strong structure Taiwan tend tion traditional trust unions United University Press values workers York