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政治秩序的起源(上卷) :從史前到法國大革命

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2020年讓全球措手不及。新型冠狀病毒(COVID-19)導致的肺炎疫情意外爆發,不僅考驗各國政府如何保護國民健康、維繫經濟活動,更加速國際政治情勢的變化,疫情能否獲得控制仍在未定之天,世界秩序已然大洗牌。如今重讀政治思想家法蘭西斯.福山於2014年寫就的《政治秩序的起源》,彷彿置身於政治預言之中。★《克科斯書評》非文學類最佳書籍★「這是一部主題龐大的作品,也是具有勇氣的著作。這部上下卷的巨作絕對令人銘記在心,其地位不亞於史學家馮.蘭克。」──《華盛頓郵報》(The Washington Post)【內容說明】法蘭西斯.福山師承杭亭頓(Samual P. Huntington),希望能藉由這套《政治秩序的起源》,補足其政治思想因時代衍生的落差。但他的做法並非接續杭亭頓的著作從1970年代開始分析,而選擇從人類史前開始,自人類的靈長目祖先黑猩猩談起。法蘭西斯.福山認為現代國家要實施民主並不難,真正困難的是建立有能力為人民服務,並且保障人民安全的合法現代國家。《政治秩序的起源》分成上下兩卷,其理論基礎在於,現代成功的自由民主,來自三大政治體制:國家、政治、可問責的政府。第一、國家必須能合法、有效地使用權力。第二、法治是用來限制國家、統治者的權力。第三、一個可問責的政府,會藉由公平自由的多黨選舉等民主程序,迫使統治者以全民利益為優先,而非謀一己之私。在《政治秩序的起源(上卷):從史前到法國大革命》中,福山旁徵博引、縱貫古今,展開一場探討政治建制的起源、演變與衰敗的歷史之旅。上卷共分五部,前半以國家建造為主題,闡述從黑猩猩的生活習性乃至人類部落社會的出現;他視中國為世界上第一個擁有現代政治體系的國家,並比較同樣位於東方的印度,宗教如何讓兩者的政治發展截然不同;一路延伸至中東如何藉由奇特的奴隸制度建立短暫的強勢國家。後半則立論於法治,談宗教如何在西方發展出法治獨立的運作模式;以及直到法國大革命前夕,可問責政府在歐洲的發展。對照2014年書中提到的質疑與推測,如中國能否在專制制度下維持經濟成長,如今讀來分外值得深思。縱然自由市場、有活力的公民社會、自發性的群眾智慧,都是民主重要的成分,但都無法取代一個強健、階層分明的政府。民主建制的存在,並不是評斷某國治理好壞的有力依據,未能兌現承諾,才是政治制度面臨的最嚴峻挑戰。如何「向丹麥看齊」,建立民主、安全、繁榮又不腐敗的國家,是本書追求的理想國度。【獲獎記錄】美國亞馬遜網路書店選書《紐約時報》最受注目好書《環球郵報》最佳好書《克科斯書評》非文學類最佳書籍【各界好評】「福山這本書是給一般大眾最好的政治通識閱讀材料,看完之後,馬上可對國際上各國家民族的政治發展基本上進入狀況,對人類數百年來摸索民主的真實情況,了然於心。」 ──陳思賢(臺大政治學系教授)「福山於本書點出重要議題:當今眾多社會已經穩定進入民主政治,但為何還有許多國家堅持採用集權政體?」── 《衛報》(The Guardian)「《政治秩序的起源》展現高度的抱負與可讀性。」── 《紐約客》(The New Yorker)雜誌「本書是我們這個時代的重大成就,福山更是領先群倫的公共知識分子。」── 《紐約時報》(The New York Times) 「本書全面審視人類的行為,及產生的政治現象。是一本具有權威性的作品,呈現作者的博學與非常自信的意圖。」── 《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)「福山具有大視野的格局,但對於細節也能精準掌握。鮮少談政治理論的書能讓人愛不釋卷,但《政治秩序的起源》做到了。」── 《經濟學人》(The Economist) 「福山這本新作的重要成就,等同於盧梭、洛克等極具影響力思想家的作品,在道德哲學與經濟學的地位,與羅爾斯的《正義論》、諾貝爾經濟學獎得主沈恩的作品相較,亦不遑多讓。」── 《克里夫蘭誠報》(Cleveland Plain Dealer) 「福山是一位有魅力的作者!透過讀者熟知的歷史、哲學與社會理論,再以通俗的語言講述複雜、專業的政治制度。」── 《舊金山紀事報》(San Francisco Chronicle) 「福山的敏銳本能,讓他無可避免地觸及世界各地的地緣政治戰略,也證明自己是當代最暢銷的政治學家作者。」── 《新聞週刊》(Newsweek) 「這是一部主題龐大的作品,也是具有勇氣的著作。這部上下卷的巨作絕對令人銘記在心,其地位不亞於史學家馮.蘭克。」── 《華盛頓郵報》(The Washington Post) 「在人類歷史上,國家的權威與私人領域之間,一直處於不斷變化與緊張的關係,福山的散文式作品對此關係做出精闢的專業分析。」── 《出版人週刊》(Publishers Weekly)【作者簡介】法蘭西斯.福山 Francis Fukuyama史丹佛大學國際研究所教授,兼民主、發展與法治中心主任。曾任教於約翰.霍普金斯大學、喬治.梅森大學,擔任蘭德公司(RAND Corporation)研究員及國務院政策規劃幕僚副主任,亦曾出任美國總統生物倫理委員會委員。著有《歷史之終結與最後一人》(The End of History and the Last Man)、《跨越斷層:人性與社會秩序重建》(The Great Disruption)、《後人類未來:基因工程的人性浩劫》(Our Posthuman Future)、《強國論》(State Building)、《政治秩序的起源(上卷):從史前到法國大革命》(The Origins of Political Order),及《政治秩序的起源(下卷):從工業革命到民主全球化的政治秩序與政治衰敗》(Political Order and Political Decay)、《身分政治:民粹崛起、民主倒退,認同與尊嚴的鬥爭為何席捲當代世界?》( The Demand For Dignity and the Politics of Resentment)等書。

609 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 11, 2020

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About the author

Francis Fukuyama

116 books2,230 followers
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (born 27 October 1952) is an American philosopher, political economist, and author.

Francis Fukuyama was born in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. His father, Yoshio Fukuyama, a second-generation Japanese-American, was trained as a minister in the Congregational Church and received a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago. His mother, Toshiko Kawata Fukuyama, was born in Kyoto, Japan, and was the daughter of Shiro Kawata, founder of the Economics Department of Kyoto University and first president of Osaka Municipal University in Osaka. Fukuyama's childhood years were spent in New York City. In 1967 his family moved to State College, Pennsylvania, where he attended high school.

Fukuyama received his Bachelor of Arts degree in classics from Cornell University, where he studied political philosophy under Allan Bloom. He earned his Ph.D. in government from Harvard University, studying with Samuel P. Huntington and Harvey C. Mansfield, among others. Fukuyama has been affiliated with the Telluride Association since his undergraduate years at Cornell, an educational enterprise that was home to other significant leaders and intellectuals, including Steven Weinberg and Paul Wolfowitz.

Fukuyama is currently the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the International Development Program at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University, located in Washington, DC.

Fukuyama is best known as the author of The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argued that the progression of human history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, with the world settling on liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Fukuyama predicted the eventual global triumph of political and economic liberalism.

What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such... That is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.

He has written a number of other books, among them Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity and Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. In the latter, he qualified his original 'end of history' thesis, arguing that since biotechnology increasingly allows humans to control their own evolution, it may allow humans to alter human nature, thereby putting liberal democracy at risk. One possible outcome could be that an altered human nature could end in radical inequality. He is a fierce enemy of transhumanism, an intellectual movement asserting that posthumanity is a highly desirable goal.

The current revolution in biological sciences leads him to theorize that in an environment where science and technology are by no means at an end, but rather opening new horizons, history itself cannot therefore be said to be, as he once thought, at an end.

In another work The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstruction of Social Order, he explores the origins of social norms, and analyses the current disruptions in the fabric of our moral traditions, which he considers as arising from a shift from the manufacturing to the information age. This shift is, he thinks, normal and will prove self-correcting, given the intrinsic human need for social norms and rules.

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