ระหว่าง Francis Fukuyama กับ Samuel Huntington : The End of History and the Last Man กับ The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of World Order

Abstract

There are very interesting conflicting ideas in the writings of Francis Fukuyama and his teacher, Samuel P. Huntingdon. The dissonance between the ideas of student and teacher appear in Fukuyama’s article, “The End of History”, which was written in 1989 and later expanded into a book, “The End of History and the Last Man.” It was a book which made waves in academia and in the political world as well.

In “The End of History” Fukuyama cites the dialectical ideas of Hegel about the fight within the heart and mind of every human being for dignity and to escape oppression. Hegel believed that this struggle for the hearts and minds of men is the force that changes history. Fukuyama sees human development in terms of politics and government and concludes that the final form of government for which humanity has been seeking, and which we have finally achieved, is the democracy. Fukuyama sees the most vital democratic system growing out of the great French Revolution and credits the French with achieving the form of democratic government best able to insure the dignity of its citizenry. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the failure of Marxism and the repudiation of the communist ideal, there is no longer any substantial disagreement or struggle over political ideology. Therefore, Fukuyama concludes, we have come to the end of history.

Samuel Huntingdon contested Fukuyama in a 1993 article, “The Clash of Civilizations”. Huntingdon rejected Fukuyama’s idea that we have seen the end of history. Struggles based on political ideology may have ceased to hold the center stage since the end of the Cold War. Nonetheless, conflicts between civilizations and cultures continue unabated, especially between Islam and the West. According to Huntingdon, this fight will continue.