Donald Trump and the Return of Class: An interview with

Francis Fukuyama

Written by: JWT Editorial Board on February 2, 2017.

In 1989, political scientist Francis Fukuyamas essay The End of History? declared the triumph of western liberal democracy: what
we are witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or a passing of a particular period of postwar history, but the end of history as
such: that is, the endpoint of mankinds ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form
of human government. But for Fukuyama, Donald Trumps victory marks a new age of populist nationalism: a watershed not just
for American politics, but for the entire world order.

In the chorus of experts that seek to offer explanations for the US presidential election results, Fukuyamas analysis has forcefully
engaged with the concept of class. On several occasions following the election, Fukuyama uncompromisingly emphasised that a
class division precedes all other divisions related to identity. In an interview with Open Democracy, Mr Fukuyama elaborated on this
concept in detail.

Following are some important points he discussed during the interview:

Question: Does the concept of class have a chance to return victoriously to academic as well as public discourse?
Answer: It is more complicated than that. My argument is that class really determines the way people think about politics. The anti-
elite anger felt by people who have, at best, high school education, and who have done less well economically, is real. However,
many of them do not see themselves as part of the proletariat. They do not think of themselves in economic terms altogether, but
rather, in identity terms and foremost in terms of racial identity. So, what is happening in the politics of the United States particularly,
but I also think in other countries, is that identity in a form of nationality or ethnicity or race has become a proxy for class. In short,
these forms of identity substitute for a class identity.