How will the current COVID-19 crisis influence national democracies and international political relations? Will there be a shift in the balance of powers – between countries, but also between democracies and dictatorships?
For insight and knowledge on these matters, we can look to the renowned American political scientist Francis Fukuyama. The John Adams Institute and De Balie worked together to present a live interview with Fukuyama. In this interview with Balie director Yoeri Albrecht, he addressed the relationship between the covid crisis and democracy. The true issue at stake is trust.
“The major dividing line in effective crisis response will not place autocracies on one side and democracies on the other”, he wrote in a recent article in The Atlantic. “What matters in the end is not regime type – dictatorship or democracy – but whether citizens trust their leaders.”
Fukuyama is a professor at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and is the author of a number of books, including The End of History. His most recent book is Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment (translated by Atlas Contact as Identiteit). He spoke about it last year at an event also organized by the John Adams and De Balie (click below to watch a video of that event).
