You are here: Bad history » 'The end of history? Not quite'...
The end of history? Not quite
In 2000, Condoleezza Rice published an article in the Foreign Affairs journal that spoke of "history march[ing] toward markets and democracy".
Five years later, soon after she was appointed Secretary of State, she contributed to a lengthy US Government report, Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The US Record 2004-2005, in which she said that American "support of the inalienable rights of freedom-loving people everywhere" was encouraged by the fact that "history shows us that progress toward democracy is inevitable".
Perhaps these claims were just naively optimistic, although they were probably deliberate attempts to build support for her foreign-policy goals, but they miss the extent to which democracy is failing to progress in much of the world. Indeed, it is only by ignoring the experience of the developing world, in particular Africa, since the Second World War that one could argue that democracy is prospering at all.
Consider the case of Nigeria: although it was an independent state ruled by elected politicians in 1960, a military coup in 1966 led to a civil war in 1967-70, followed by 40 years of instability and political violence. Many other cases refute any notion of "inevitable progress".
Determinism such as Rice's, however, is not merely mistaken, but dangerous. It implied that democracy would simply and inexorably triumph in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein. It distracted attention from historical contexts and stifled the practical planning of exactly how (if at all) a fractured state, freed from tyranny but riven by ethnic and religious conflict, could be transformed into a functioning democracy. The consequences could hardly have been more costly.
About the author
Gervase Phillips is principal lecturer in history, Manchester Metropolitan University.