ABSTRACT
In a democratic society that still harbours the most persecutory of chauvinisms the need for a substantial politics of recognition – as opposed to merely formal legislation – is abundantly clear. In The End of History and The Last Man Francis Fukuyama opens by plotting the growth in numbers of liberal democratic states around the world. For Fukuyama liberal democracy in conjunction with capitalism satisfies the desire for objects and the desire for the desire of the other. According to Fukuyama, the indignation felt when one is wronged, or indeed the shame experienced when one transgresses one's own internal moral code, is evidence of the capacity for moral judgement and self-mastery. Fukuyama goes on to argue that Nietzsche was 'absolutely correct' to believe that a certain degree of megalothymia was necessary for civilization, suggesting that without the wish to be better than others there would be little art, literature, music or intellectual life.
