Francis Fukuyama: Against Identity Politics - The John Adams Institute

The John Adams Institute, in collaboration with De Balie, once again hosted the renowned political scientist Francis Fukuyama to discuss his new book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, translated into Dutch as Identiteit and published by Atlas Contact. In Identity, Fukuyama shows that populist nationalism is not motivated by economic concerns, but rather by the demand for recognition of one’s identity – and therefore cannot be satisfied simply by economic means. All over the world, identity politics based on religion, ethnicity and gender are on the rise. This has resulted in the upsurge of politicized Islam, of identity politics based on ethnic minorities and of anti-immigrant populism. Twenty-six years after the publication of his ground-breaking book The End of History, Francis Fukuyama has changed his viewpoint that liberal democracies are the logical endpoint of history. In today’s world, the demand for identity cannot be transcended: we must begin to shape identity in a way that supports rather than undermines democracy. This video was recorded on March 08, 2019