Fukuyama asserts that political power is the product of more than just resources and number of citizens, but the degree to which the legitimacy o the leaders and institutions is recognized by that society and the citizens.
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"Human beings are rational, self-interested creatures, and will learn to cooperate out of pure self-interest as economists assert." (43) There are structure pathways beyond this that give human politics it particular flavor.
- All human being gravitate toward the favoring of kin and friends with whom they have exchanged favors unless strongly incentivized to do otherwise.
- Human being have a capacity for abstraction and theory that generates mental models of causality, and a further tendency to posit causation based on invisible or transcendental forces. This is the basis of religious belief, which acts as a critical source of social cohesion.
- Humans have a proclivity for norm following that is grounded in the emotions rather than in reason, and consequently a tendency to invest mental models and the rules that flow from them with intrinsic worth.
- Human beings desire intersubjective recognition, either of their own worth, or of the worth of theis gods, laws, customs, and ways of life. Recognition when granted becomes the basis of legitimacy, and legitimacy then permits the exercise of political authority.
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