Hegel against Fukuyama: Associations, Markets and Recognition

Fukuyama's influential book The End of History and the Last Man presents an Hegelian picture of history as the story of the struggle for recognition. Modern liberal society is the end of history since it resolves that struggle. However, unlike Hegel, Fukuyama assumes recognition is pursued for its own sake. The assumption lends plausibility to a market model of recognition which sits uneasily with his own defence of associational spheres of existence. Hegel, in contrast, inherits an Aristotelian position according to which recognition is parasitic on other goods. This account of recognition informs Hegel's defence of an associational account of civil society and his rejection of market exchange as satisfactory site for recognition. Hegel's response to market modes of recognition is contrasted with that of Adam Smith.