POLITICAL ORDER AND POLITICAL DECAY (Paperback)

Francis Fukuyama's second volume on political development runs from the Industrial Revolution to the present, asking how states, rule of law and accountable government come into being and how they fall apart. The paperback runs to 672 pages. The argument treats modern political order as the product of three institutions that have to develop together, and the book tests that claim against cases in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Considerable attention goes to the way established democracies decay, through capture by organised interests and the hardening of bureaucracies that once worked. It completes the project begun in The Origins of Political Order and can be read alongside it or on its own. Quick facts: • 672 pages covering political development since industrialisation • Comparative case material from several continents • Analysis of institutional decay in mature democracies • Companion volume to The Origins of Political Order Written for students of politics, history and development and for serious general readers, published by Hachette Book Group USA and available through Boipoka.