The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution - Francis Fukuyama

Written by Francis Fukuyama
Read by Jonathan Davis
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

The Origins of Political Order from Pre-human Times to the French Revolution (UNABRIDGED)
by Francis Fukuyama
Narrated by Jonathan Davis
LENGTH: 22 hrs and 34 mins
AUDIBLE RELEASE DATE: 12-27-11
PUBLISHER: Audible, Inc.
Publisher’s Summary
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions that included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or unable to function in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
Francis Fukuyama, author of the best-selling The End of History and The Last Man, and one of our most important political thinkers, provides a sweeping account of how today’s basic political institutions developed.
The first of a major two-volume work, The Origins of Political Order begins with politics among our primate ancestors and follows the story through the emergence of tribal societies, the growth of the first modern state in China, the beginning of the rule of law in India and the Middle East, and the development of political accountability in Europe up until the eve of the French Revolution.
Drawing on a vast body of knowledge—history, evolutionary biology, archaeology, and economics—Fukuyama has produced a brilliant, provocative work that offers fresh insights on the origins of democratic societies and raises essential questions about the nature of politics and its discontents.
Download the accompanying reference guide.
©2011 Francis Fukuyama (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
What the Critics Say
“Fukuyama writes a crystalline prose that balances engaging erudition with incisive analysis. As germane to the turmoil in Afghanistan as it is to today’s congressional battles, this is that rare work of history with up-to-the-minute relevance.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Political theorist Francis Fukuyama’s new book is a major accomplishment, likely to find its place among the works of seminal thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke, and modern moral philosophers and economists such as John Rawls and Amartya Sen . . .It is a perspective and a voice that can supply a thinker’s tonic for our current political maladies.” (Earl Pike, The Cleveland Plain Dealer)
“Ambitious and highly readable.” (The New Yorker)
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00. Preface
Part I: Before the State
01. The Necessity of Politics
02. The State of Nature
03. The Tyranny of Cousins
04. Tribal Societies: Property, Justice, War
05. The Coming of the Leviathan
Part II: State Building
06. Chinese Tribalism
07. War and the Rise of the Chinese State
08. The Great Han System
09. Political Decay and the Return of Patrimonial Government
10. The Indian Detour
11. Varnas and Jatis
12. Weaknesses of Indian Polities
13. Slavery and the Muslim Exit from Tribalism
14. The Mamluks Save Islam
15. The Functioning and Decline of the Ottoman State
16. Christianity Undermines the Family
Part III: The Rule of Law
17. The Origins of the Rule of Law
18. The Church Becomes a State
19. The State Becomes a Church
20. Oriental Despotism
21. Stationary Bandits
Part IV: Accountable Government
22. The Rise of Political Accountability
23. Rente Seekers
24. Patrimonialism Crosses the Atlantic
25. East of the Elbe
26. Toward a More Perfect Absolutism
27. Taxation and Representation
28. Why Accountability? Why Absolutism?
Part V: Toward a Theory of Political Development
29. Political Development and Political Decay
30. Political Development, Then and Now