Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Author, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy
Dr. Stephen Krasner, Professor of International Studies; Freeman Spogli Institute Senior Fellow; Hoover Institution Fellow, Stanford University - Moderator

Fukuyama discusses the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal and accountable political institutions. Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He  also explores 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 boldly reckons with the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West.