The Origins of Political Order

Francis Fukuyama

Once upon a time, humans moved around in bands. Then there were tribes, and then there were states. States and the societies that make up its population have developed a bunch of institutions (defined as “stable, valued, recurring patterns of behaviour”), some of which are uniformly present across the globe, and some not. How did this variation happen?

Why is every country not a democracy, which is largely accepted as the best trade-off for all concerned? How did different countries reach their current form? That’s what this book is all about – how did different countries develop institutions that currently make up their current society and state?

The author categories institutions into 3 types – the state, the rule of law, and accountable government. The current successful model of democracy has all three in a stable balance. How did it get here? He begins right from the biological foundations of human behaviour, which dictated man’s predisposition to kin-based groups, the formation of norms and rules, the desire for not just resources, but recognition too, and how social institutions of some sort existed to channel the violence that the last point led to. 

He then moves to the shared mental models (ideas) – from spirits and nature to gravity and religion (moral codes of behaviour) – that facilitated large-scale collective action. Language being the key one at a species level. Religion too had a large role in shaping political outcomes – even if they played out differently. In terms of impact, the Brahmanic religion (and social classes) in India differs from what the Catholic Church achieved in Europe. And both are different from what Islam did in the Middle East and Mediterranean. And then there’s China, where its impact was limited.

The subsequent development across geographies is fascinating. China’s default condition is a strong, centralised government, while neighbouring India is the exact opposite. China was the first to become a state, but didn’t move at pace on the other two institutions. India became a state much later (the British did that), but did well on the rule of law and accountable government. South East Asia has many cases of successful authoritarian governments, but Middle East doesn’t. Russia, which shares climatic and geographical conditions with Scandinavia has repeatedly shown unconstrained absolutism. 

In Europe, the rise of the Church weakened kinships and successively led to more individual rights. Women’s right to own property was also an unintentional side-effect of the church trying to get more land! The Church also laid the groundwork for the rule of law. Despite feudalism taking root in France, Spain and Britain, the progression from then on was massively different. Spain’s path also influenced Latin America’s evolution and political institutions. Britain was the first state to have all three institutions in place. Its interactions with the Middle East (and its modernisation) also had an effect on the Muslim World, which had separated religion and politics after the early days of Islam. Again, the post colonial development of India vs many Middle Eastern societies also went in different directions after both attained freedom from the British. 

An interesting assertion by Alexander Kojève is worth a mention – he stated that history ended when Napoleon defeated Prussia in 1806. Everything after that was just backfilling. That is, the modern principles of government were established, and it was now just a matter of all states implementing them! 

The development of political systems has much in common with Darwin’s theory of evolution, though there are differences too. One major point of divergence is that selected characteristics are spread culturally instead of genetically, and can be imitated. What does this mean for a state like China, which despite being authoritarian is showing tremendous growth? Or for that matter, for democracies – whether it is developing nations like India or the developed West, where there are problems that don’t have easy solutions. The development of the political world from the Industrial Revolution, and perspectives of what lies ahead is the second volume of the book. One that I will most definitely pick up!