Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity--A Review Article

Contemporary economics is currently undergoing a crisis as reflected by a decline in its influence on public policy discourse. The abject failure of academic economics to effectively address issues of the transitional economies or to produce a satisfactory explanation of the East Asian economic crisis has added to this negative image. This paper reviews Francis Fukuyama's recent book, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity to present an interdisciplinary perspective on many of the topics economists have come to claim as theirs only. According to Fukuyama, there are many issues in societal behavior that cannot be satisfactorily explained by the assumption of rational economic agents. He believes that social capital is a major contributing factor in building economic prosperity around the world.