ABSTRACT
The breadth and scope that are missing from the syllogism are conveyed by the book's four-part structure. Francis Fukuyama addresses "The Idea of Trust" and the "Power of Culture" in shaping economic performance. Fukuyama deals, respectively, "with "Low-Trust Societies" and "High-Trust Societies." The low-trust exemplars are China, Italy, France, and Korea, in which "familistic" Confucianism and its cognates impede, rather that propitiate, the formation of large, private economic organizations and their attendant contributions to high economic performance. "High economic performance" and "prosperity" can be properly defined as relatively high per capita levels of gross domestic product, or personal consumption, or sustained rates of growth, in these indicators. It is also arguable whether, as the second premise of the syllogism presumes, the creation and sustenance of large economic organizations is decisively affected by "spontaneous sociability," "social capital," and the pervasiveness of "trust.".
