POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Population Pyramid, Benevolent Dictatorship, Nepotism
Document Summary
Francis fukuyama, the end of history and the last man . Believes that democracy is the ultimate or highest form of human government (his book was written after the collapse of the cold war) Teleology: philosophical study of design and purpose: everything that happens builds toward a goal/purpose, ex. Primitive communism slave society (class society) feudalism capitalism. Fukuyama"s teleological argument: democracy is good, widespread, and here to stay. Kaplan"s argument: democracy is not necessarily good; real democracy is hardly widespread; and democracy is becoming less democratic in practice, i. e. it is not here to stay. Kaplan favours benign dictatorships, and thinks countries under this type of rule are stable (ex. China, chile, singapore, pakistan); he focuses only on stability and economic growth, overlooking human rights and freedoms. Even though authoritarianism can create preconditions for democracy, sometimes an authoritarian government is better suited to rule a specific country; however, kaplan does not address the problems of having a dictator.
