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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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092589
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09258900.057
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1990-09-17
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LETTERS, Page 9Farewell to History
The belief of State Department policy planner Francis Fukuyama
that history has reached an "end" and that Western liberal
democracy is the "final form of human government" only shows his
myopic view of civilizations (IDEAS, Sept. 4). Cultures and
countries go through repetitive political stages, democracy being
but one form. There were primitive democracies in the ancient Near
East that turned tyrannical and oligarchic. Even ancient Athens,
the "pillar of democracy," had its tyrants and ruling oligarchs,
before and after flirting with democratic structures.
Mark R. Horowitz
Homewood, Ill.
Fukuyama reminds me of the commissioner of the U.S. Office of
Patents who claimed in 1899 that everything that could be invented
had been invented. Liberal democracy is no more the "final,
rational form of society and state" than was the monarchical form
and its "divine right." Fukuyama would have us believe that world
history has simply been a game of ideological musical chairs and
the music has stopped. But history will not "end," because every
so often individuals arise who radically change it, add more chairs
and start the music again.
Paul Gregory
Grand Rapids