 So far, we have seen how the events of the 20th century provoked criticisms of the typical European progress narrative. In contrast, the collapse of communism inspired a minor revival of the traditional progress narrative.  In his 1989 article “The End of History?” Francis Fukuyama proclaims: “What we may be witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War … but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological development and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” (1989, 3).  This article and its companion book, The End of History and the Last Man, endorse Hegelian social theory as Fukuyama interprets it.  For Fukuyama, Hegel at once offers an idealist theory of social change and champions liberal democracy.  Fukuyama argues that, according to Hegel, history entered its final phase when the principles of liberal democracy first motivated a world historical event, namely the French Revolution (1992, xvii; 199).  After that crucial point, no more major developments were in store, but instead the gradual spread and realization of the liberal democratic ideal. 