Today’s movement against marginalization is fueled by an unequivocal desire for the system to recognize and incorporate identity. However, identity politics has caused deep fragmentations in American society that are predicated on the belief that one group’s inclusion means the other’s exclusion. In his new book, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and The Politics of Resentment, Francis Fukuyama, best-selling author and renowned political scientist, addresses the issues of identity politics. 

Fukuyama argues that our connection to personal identities has disconnected us from universal understandings of human dignity. He agrees that identity is fundamentally democratic and is indeed a pillar of fledgling democracies. However, narrow identities can pit groups against one another and manipulate people’s ability to recognize or seek out mutually inclusive solutions.

Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He has written a number of successful works on developmental and international politics. Come listen to him deliver a provocative examination of identity and its connection to democracy.