The Invisible Hand

And as Fukuyama noted, legitimacy is the ‘independent driver’ which explains all other phenomena in the political and social sphere. Thus, even though the ‘balance of power’ dynamic and the distribution of power in a society is largely a mystery as mentioned before and is essentially guided by an “invisible hand” per se, it is fair to argue that the mysterious forces behind the balance of power and the distribution of power or the “invisible hand” which distributes power and determines the balance of power in a society is largely driven by the issue of credibility and legitimacy. 

It follows that for the whole political process in America to fall squarely on the shoulders of a person like Matt Gaetz – who mockingly uses the word “omnibus” and once joked about getting waterboarded by Liz Cheney – is largely driven by the decimation and obliteration of credibility and legitimacy in Washington. In short, no one has credibility and legitimacy in Washington after decades of corruption and unjustified wars. 

Hence, for the whole political process of the entire country to fall squarely on the shoulders of Matt Gaetz is a demonstration that the mysterious forces and the “invisible hand” which are responsible for the balance of power and the distribution of power in America have essentially deemed everyone else in Washington as discredited and illegitimate. Arguably, for the whole political process in America to fall squarely on the shoulders of Matt Gaetz says more about the lack of credibility and legitimacy on the part of everyone in Washington than about Matt Gaetz as a person. 

Donald Trump was also an important figure in the brokering of power and the facilitation of the American political process over the last few days. It has been argued that Trump’s phone calls during the entire process essentially guided the process to its finish. Thus, as much as folks like Maggie Haberman – who one must note is making a career off of Trump – seek to diminish and banish Trump from the public sphere, Trump is still an influential and powerful figure in American politics and American social life. In a sense, the entire political process converged upon Trump, and it is likely that Trump will be the focal point or point of convergence in American politics and American social life yet again sometime over the course of the next couple of years, much to the dismay of partisan Democrats. 

One must also note that the entire political process consisted of “components” or “dimensions of development” to borrow from Fukuyama, and in turn these components or dimensions of development were all linked together by the issue of credibility and legitimacy. As Fukuyama wrote: “While each of the six dimensions of development can change independently, they are also all linked to one another in a multitude of ways.” Fukuyama added: “A model of political development would consist of a theory that explained these causal linkages.” 

These components or dimensions of development are economic growth or the lack thereof, social mobilization and social change, ideas concerning justice, the evolution of the state, rule of law, and democratic accountability. In turn, the “model” or “theory” or the “causal linkages” between these six different components and dimensions of development is the issue of credibility and legitimacy, which as mentioned before, is the independent driver behind all of these components and dimensions of development.