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Francis Fukuyama

Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment Hardcover – September 11, 2018

by Francis Fukuyama (Author)

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The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state

In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people,” who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.

Demand for recognition of one’s identity is a master concept that unifies much of what is going on in world politics today. The universal recognition on which liberal democracy is based has been increasingly challenged by narrower forms of recognition based on nation, religion, sect, race, ethnicity, or gender, which have resulted in anti-immigrant populism, the upsurge of politicized Islam, the fractious “identity liberalism” of college campuses, and the emergence of white nationalism. Populist nationalism, said to be rooted in economic motivation, actually springs from the demand for recognition and therefore cannot simply be satisfied by economic means. The demand for identity cannot be transcended; we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy.

Identity is an urgent and necessary book―a sharp warning that unless we forge a universal understanding of human dignity, we will doom ourselves to continuing conflict.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date

September 11, 2018
Dimensions

5.7 x 0.89 x 8.57 inches
ISBN-10

0374129290
ISBN-13

978-0374129293
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The Times (UK) Best Books of 2018, Politics • Financial Times Best Books of 2018

"Smart, crisp . . . We need more thinkers as wise as [Fukuyama]." ―Anand Giridharadas, The New York Times Book Review (Editor's Choice)

"Intelligent and provocative." ―SF Chronicle

"[Identity] is in itself an indictment of the perilous times we live in today." ―Arjun Neil Alim, The Standard (London)

"[Identity] is as wise as it is compact, traveling at great speed through difficult terrain to a sensible conclusion." ―Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (London)

"The renowned political scientist argues persuasively, and urgently, that a desire for recognition of one's dignity is inherent in every human being―and is necessary for a thriving democracy . . . A cogent analysis of dire threats to democracy." ―Kirkus

"Ambitious and provocative . . . This erudite work is likely to spark debate." ―Publishers Weekly

"Keenly thought-provoking and timely." ―Brendan Driscoll, Booklist

About the Author

Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has previously taught at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University and at the George Mason University School of Public Policy. He was a researcher at the RAND Corporation and served as the deputy director in the State Department's policy planning staff. He is the author of The End of History and the Last Man, Trust, and America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy. He lives with his wife in California.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (September 11, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0374129290
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374129293
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 0.89 x 8.57 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #520,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #598 in Democracy (Books)
- #1,417 in Political Philosophy (Books)
- #2,018 in History & Theory of Politics

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4.5 919 ratings

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Francis Fukuyama is Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University, and Mosbacher DIrector of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

Dr. Fukuyama has writtenon questions concerning governance, democratization, and international political economy. His book, The End of History and the Last Man, was published by Free Press in 1992 and has appeared in over twenty foreign editions. His most recent books are The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, and Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. His book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment will be published in Septmer 2018.

Francis Fukuyama received his B.A. from Cornell University in classics, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in Political Science. He was a member of the Political Science Department of the RAND Corporation from 1979-1980, then again from 1983-89, and from 1995-96. In 1981-82 and in 1989 he was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the US Department of State, and was a member of the US delegation to the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy. From 1996-2000 he was Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at George Mason University, and from 2001-2010 he was Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2001-2004.

Francis Fukuyama is married to Laura Holmgren and lives in Palo Alto, California.

March 2018

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JorJor G.

Desire for Dignity is Natural. Political Liberalism Accomodates this Need in Diverse Nations.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2022

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4.5 Stars.
Fukuyama is a political liberal who recognizes unique lived experiences and the importance of identity via identity groups. He also focuses on the increasingly narrow and ever multiplying identity groups and that they often emphasize their unique differences rather than sameness and this makes governing a large, diverse nation all the more difficult when common ties as a people are dismantled in favor of myriad parochial memberships.

It's literally happening before our eyes---the assault on political liberalism---and it is a problem. But postmodernists committed to dismantle political liberalism will necessarily take issue with Fukuyama's work.

Again, it is as though some of the reviews taking issue with his criticisms of the political left, ignore what he said in the beginning chapters of the book when talking about Hegel and the desire for recognition and dignity to be an intrinsic aspect of human nature. Fukuyama doesn't say the Left invented it. He says they are focused on ever narrower definitions amongst multiplying groups. Just look at the feuds over all the recent changes to the LGBTIQ+ flag with its ever multiplying stripes and shapes, or the "72" genders.

Fukuyama also talks a lot about ethno nationalism in Europe and its experience with Islamic populations within Europe. I find it refreshing that he spends some time discussing something other than racial and gender issues in the USA, which seems to be the only kind of talk, or recognition, of identity many Americans on the political left ever want to discuss.

If empathy and common purpose and understanding are impossible (as many postmodernists focused on "lived group experience" insist) then how can politics be anything but a dysfunctional zero-sum game in large diverse nations? Of course, no one else can intimately know the exact lived experience of another, but there are common themes of understanding and that is how communities based on recognition of ideas, like political liberalism and its values, versus identities of physical characteristics, can exist. Even neuroscience reveals the brain regions responsible for empathy and that it is a real biological feature of human brains to feel each other's pain.

Moreover, when people are told it is impossible for common ground because they lack the same lived experience, this breeds more conflict not reconciliation, cooperation and mutual tolerance.

It remains a particular feature of political liberalism that it is tolerant of pluralism and diversity. What hope of recognition of identity do people think they would receive living in an intolerant, illiberal society which narrowly focused on the lived experience of members of a preferred gender, religion, or racial group? The only recognition people would have is for identities in accordance with the dominant identity of the nation. Political liberalism has respect for the individual, minority groups, and universal human rights baked into its governing values. That is a strength of political liberalism and we shouldnt seek to throw the baby out with the bath water when trying to reform and improve our society.

One person found this helpful

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Jaime

Excellent diagnostics, poor proposals

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 16, 2023

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Fukuyama, as most reputable political scientists today, is capable of very accurately diagnosing the causes and evils of the politics of identity that prevail today, especially in Western societies. In this respect the book is truly excellent.
He fails, however in proposing concrete actions that could help remediate the current situation. The last chapter in the book, the only one that pretended to do that, is the weakest of all.

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PembrokeSorbonne

Analysing Nationalist Populism via Identitiy Politics

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 18, 2021

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This book is not another postmortem about 2016 Trump win but attempts to explain nationalist populism in history using the concept of the "demand for dignity", i.e., thymos, originated in Plato's Republic. Fukuyama explains revolutions and movements of many causes in history are mainly a quest for dignity. In typical Fukuyama's fashion, he is able to deliver complex and broad political and historical analysis in a very readable manner.

The chapter "Nationalism and Religion" which illustrates the conceptual parallel in seeking dignity as a goal by both nationalists and Islamists is worth reading in itself. Fukuyama suggests both nationalists and Islamists felt marginalised by modernisation and society, and, desire recognition. Interestingly, suburban conservative working class whites [Silent Majority] in the US, and, 2nd generation youths of migrants from Islamic countries in Europe feel disenfranchised by their societies in the same way which led to their radicalisation into Trumpism or ISIS conversion, respectively. Radicalisation which blames society oppression is not unlike Marx's calling the proletariat class to revolution while blaming bourgeois ruling class oppression.
Another interesting discussion of this book is a discussion of nationality. Nationalist populist such as Trump and European counterparts likes to use the slogan of "taking back OUR country" to appeal for their alleged lost dignity. However the US Constitution does not specify who "we" denotes in "we the people". From that, Fukuyama launches to an analysis of national identity and how to think about the notion in the modern condition. He includes samples of establishing national identity, and, requirements for citizenship of various countries. In the case of the US, its history features a debate between an identity based on ethnicity and religion, and, a creedal or social contract form of identity. The 14th amendment definition of citizenship and two centuries of immigration have settled the US identity to be creedal. Trump and his loyalists using implied race and religion identity is basically trying to revert to an outdated notion of US nationality.
Fukuyama's solution to the politics of identity and resentment is to promote a creedal notion of national identity via integrating smaller groups into larger groups. Immigration debate should focus on better strategy of assimilation of immigrants. However, he admits there is no solution to hard core groups driven by racism and bigotry (p. 177). But Trump's demographics consist of mostly hard core groups of this character. Trump also fanned progressively increasing extremism in his antics. Hence, it seems Fukuyama really has no solution against Trumpian popularism despite in the preface he wrote the book would not have been written if not for Trump's win in 2016.

3 people found this helpful

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Burak Ersoy

Good source

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2023

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Fukuyama is a thinker who has the ability to rethink. I see how his ideas are applying to today's politics. A good read with an open mind

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Top reviews from other countries

Mach3nomore

Disappointing - from a Francis fan...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 13, 2022

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I'm a big fan of Francis's work as someone who classifies myself as a classic liberal. The reason for my low score is his depiction of Brexit as a result of 'English exceptionalism'. I think this is the issue of people from outside the UK getting out of their lane on this topic and falling for the idea it was all a bit 'Trumpy' - and I say this as a Remainer. Let's be clear, there are parallels but euro-scepticism isn't driven by English exceptionalism. This is demonstrably true in that the Welsh voted for Brexit, as did 40% of the Scots... possibly the last people on earth to go for 'English' exceptionalism. There's been a big rise in anti-EU feeling across the whole of Europe; I don't think those folk are English exceptionalists either! Francis points out the problems of EU overreach, bureaucracy and lack of democratic accountability whilst also touching on working class decline in the US and UK, thus highlights the ACTUAL reasons for Brexit, namely a working class revolt against globalisation. This is a far better description of what it was rather than 'thick racists' or 'closet imperialists' which is the lazy liberal way of framing it. This in and of itself hints as why liberalism is floundering - because its cheerleaders are arrogant in not listening to people's concerns, real or imagined. A well oiled liberal machine acknowledges problems, not tries to brush them under the carpet or start acting in its own self preservation which is exactly why the EU commission goes wrong. The EU could still be a great thing but needs significant reform and accountability. Liberalism's positive future is to start listening again to discontents not calling them thickos. It also means more robust challenging of illiberal narratives on both the left and the right. Disappointing.

2 people found this helpful

IsaacK

Wherever you are on the political spectrum, you should read this book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 31, 2019

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The author provides a coherent exposition of the evolution of ideas underpinning democratic societies, particularly in Europe and US, since the enlightenment period, identifies unexpected adverse side effects of some well-intentioned ideas, and provides a point of view on how to address the current challenges.

Apart from its wide perspective and very-readable writing, what sets this book apart for me is the author's ability to provide perspectives from across the political spectrum on the core issues discussed, resulting in this rare phenomenon at our current times: a balanced discussion, rather than a one-sided 'left' or 'right' polemic.

I found this book excellent, educational, and thought-provoking.

11 people found this helpful

Michael Duerden

A Compelling Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 30, 2019

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Just finished reading IDENTITY: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition by Francis Fukuyama.

In summary the book is about how liberal democracies are being supplanted by identity politics which in extreme versions encourage ethnic and cultural nationalism.

Liberal democracies espouse the equality of man/woman. Left wing politics attempts to achieve this goal through redistribution of wealth using the power of the state. Right wing politics emphasises freedom of choice and encouragement of free enterprise regulated by market forces. Both left and right concentrate on economy as the main driver of change.

In identity politics economic issues take second place to the need to recognise who I am and my intrinsic worth which is not fairly recognised by the society in which I live. Because a person’s feelings of unappreciated potential are often unique to a particular group and in the last resort to the individual, identity politics has the potential to increasingly fragment society into ever more select and exclusive groups, often held together by joint feelings of victimhood which again often leads to demands to be seen as superior to other groups within society.

The danger of identity politics as far as the author sees it is nationalism based on ethnicity and common culture, with populist no longer bound by economics as a primary source of discontent but able to stir up feelings of hatred and animosity towards others who do not share the same ethnicity and culture.

So that is I think the main summarised message of the book which is a hard read that required a degree of concentration. But I enjoyed reading and being challenged by a well constructed book.

However as with so many books that attempt to grapple with the issues of today, the final chapter “What Is To Be Done?” is a little woolly and short on specifics on how to address the problems. This may be somewhat unfair as today’s issues are complex and probably beyond the scope of one book and indeed one author. But Francis Fukuyama is to be congratulated on making an attempt as this provided a sort of springboard for others thinking through the same set of problems.

So now to some of the book’s detailed argument:

The case for the source of identity feelings is built on “thymos”, a part of the human psyche or soul, which is the seat of judgments of worth of oneself that seeks recognition. The author extends this base idea to “isothymia”, the recognition of our own equality in terms of worth with our fellow human beings. And finally through consideration of the different aptitude’s and abilities of individuals and also owing to the stratification of communities caused by agriculture, to “megalothymia” in which societies only recognised an elite few.

The author rounds off this whole argument by claiming that the rise of modern democracy is about the replacement of megalothymia by isothymia, but that recognition of everyone’s equal worth entails a failure to recognise the worth of people who are actually superior in some sense.

This all leads to the modern concept of identity which places a supreme value on authenticity of inner feelings, and that one’s innermost being is not being allowed to express itself and thus be validated by society. This produces feelings of alienation and anxiety which can only be relieved when one accepts that inner self and receives public recognition for it.

The book then waffles on through Martin Luther and Jean-Jacques Rousseau from accepting God’s grace to human happiness and the obstacles placed on people by society’s rules and customs. The main aim of the argument at this point as far as I can fathom, is to show that democracy has to balance individual freedom and political equality - a task which has strained democracy to the limit as more and more people wish to assert their individual feelings of identity before other considerations.

The fragmentation of society into separate and increasingly exclusive Identity groups has led to a society as a whole which is not as cohesive and bound by common goals, principally economic, as in the past.

In Western society populist demagogues and rabble rousers has marched into the gap vacated by the Christian religion and provided answers to the different identity groups’ demand for recognition by asserting the rightness of ethnic superiority and common cultural values based on a society immune to the influences of mass immigration. The need for feelings of belonging have been assisted by the disconnect between the familiar setting a village life and the isolation of modern day living.

The book goes on to provide a similar analysis for other parts of the world coming to similar conclusions on inner conflicts with society, and how islamists have capitalised on this in an analogous way western populists.

Globalisation has produced more wealth but that wealth has created greater inequalities within most countries. And yet in 2016, voters failed to endorse the most left-wing populist candidates in favour of nationalist politicians as economic issues give way to the need for recognition.

There follows a more obtuse argument about who the people are, whether defined by birth and ancestry or by location within the boundary of a given nation. Of the global reach of transnational organisations versus the need for limits on a nation’s sovereignty defined by nation state boundaries.

The final chapters of the book are essentially about the global challenges that can only be addressed on an international basis, but that international cooperation is extraordinarily difficult so that any solutions need to be devised and promoted at national level between nation states.

I tried to give a flavour of what I regard as a worthwhile book even if at times I may have been critical or failed to present some of the arguments to the full extent they deserve. The world is experiencing a host of seemingly intractable issues with leaders who are either inept or more interested in their own self interests. But I will end with the author’s final exhortation from the final paragraph of his book:

“We will not escape from thinking about ourselves and our society in identity terms. But we need to remember that the identities dwelling deep inside us are neither fixed nor necessarily given to us by our accidents of birth. Identity can be used to divide, but it can and has been used to integrate. That in the end will be the remedy for the populist politics of the present.”

6 people found this helpful

Brummiemummy

Useful in a limited way

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 14, 2022

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I pulled some useful ideas from the book but felt there could have been more focus on the contemporary nature of identity politics. I don't think it needed so much on tracing the origins, which seemed to be at the expense of exploring why the left is so interested in the identity agenda and how the fires have been stoked by social media and the economic interests of lobby groups and businesses keen to associate themselves with particular causes. An exploration of the rise of the identity of allyship would also have been useful, as this is perhaps an inevitable protective response to the tone of some identity narratives. It was unclear whether the author's ultimate concern was identity politics itself or his association with polarisation and loss of reasoned critical debate. I am not sure he made a convincing case that the latter is a result of the former. The final chapter didn't appear to offer any realistically workable solutions (these sorts of books rarely do) but I suspect a rallying call to those still attached to critical thinking is as much as could usefully be done.

One person found this helpful

P. Smart

Vague History of a European Idea

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 9, 2019

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One senses in this book that Frances Fukuyama is somewhat depleted. He is content to reiterate the themes that he developed in The End of History and the Last Man; that book concerned an interpretation of classical German philosophy, whereas this book doesn't seem to comes to terms with the actual origins of the concept of identity in the work of Leibniz. Instead, Fukuyama spins a yarn that begins with the Greek notion of "thumos". He distorts Plato's own vision of this part of the soul, and then relates this distortion to early modern thinkers: Luther, Rousseau. These thinkers, he seems to suggest, paved the way for the unruly and infantile activism and confused concern that today goes by the name of "identity politics". He tells us that this form of politics is here to stay, that we must do all that we can to contend with it. In his conclusion he makes very interesting, if illiberal, prescriptions for Western democracies.

This book is worth reading if you are sympathetic to identity politics. It made this reader reconsider his stance on one the great disasters of our time - Brexit: it is the EU itself that we should blame, and not the British people or Russian interference. The EU did not do enough to foster a sense of European togetherness, instead content to pursue a detached and cold economic agenda. Perhaps this stance is wrong. If it is, Fukuyama would do well to show us why.

5 people found this helpful

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