The beginning of history and the first man: A foundation for a better politics

In a portent of the times, the Washington Post published an article in February 2017 with the foreboding title: "The man who declared the 'end of history' fears for democracy's future." When the latter-day prophet of liberal democracy's triumph begins to lose faith, one can rest assured that the moment of crisis is upon us. How is it that Francis Fukuyama could plausibly argue in 1992 that, "at the end of history, there are no serious ideological competitors left to liberal democracy," only for liberal democracy to find itself in crisis a mere 26 years later? While there is a pervasive sense that something is profoundly wrong with Western politics, accompanied by an equally pervasive yearning for a better politics, there is no consensus about the proximate or ultimate cause(s) of the current political malaise, notwithstanding the best efforts of professional and amateur prognosticators alike.