I was thus left under the impression that no one, including possibly even the author, has read the book-as a book-from page 1 to page 609, because such copy-and-paste repetitions would have been deleted. Moreover, it is only on page 201 that we learn that the original idea about the sequencing of civil service and democracy belongs to Martin Shefter. Democratic decay is often attributed to the inability of institutions to adapt effectively to rapidly shifting circumstances, especially as new social groups. One grows a bit tired of this repetition. But then repeats this at least twenty times in the following chapters. He uses, among others, the examples of Germany (democracy after civil service) and Italy and Greece (the reverse) to illustrate his point. Early on Fukuyama makes a very interesting and important point that countries that democratize too early before a strong civil service has been created, almost inevitably develop clientilistic politics. I found these word for word repetitions rather annoying because they seem to be somewhat condescending to the reader. Lots of that unnecessary length is also due to quasi verbatim repetitions of certain points.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
September 2023
Categories |