Noted author Francis Fukuyama to discuss essential questions of politics

The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley State University and the Koeze Business Ethics Initiative will welcome well-known author Francis Fukuyama to the Pew Grand Rapids Campus to discuss his follow-up book to his critically acclaimed “Origins of Political Order” on November 6 as part of the center’s American Conversations Series.

Fukuyama will take on the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal and accountable political institutions. He will follow that question from the French Revolution to the Arab Spring, and will also discuss the deep dysfunction that plagues modern American politics. 

American Conversations: “Political Order and Political Decay”

Presented by Francis Fukuyama

November 6, 7 p.m.

Eberhard Center Conference Room

301 West Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI 49504

Free and open to the public, but RSVPs are requested here: http://gvsu.edu/s/Ks

Fukuyama’s first book has been described by critics in the New York Times and Washington Post as “a major achievement by one of the leading public intellectuals of our time,” and “a book that will be remembered.”

Fukuyama will examine the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He will explore the different legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia and offers a clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and developed more quickly than others. He will also discuss the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West. 

Fukuyama’s book, “Political Order and Political Decay,” will be available for purchase during a book signing at the event.

For more information, visit HauensteinCenter.org