“A nation’s well-being, as well as its ability to compete, is conditioned by a single, pervasive cultural characteristic: the level of trust inherent in society.” Frances Fukuyama, famous for declaring the “end of history,” in this book turns to the success and failure of nations. Economics is only part of the story, he says. The key to a country’s success is its ability to create large-scale organizations (e.g., corporations), and this, in turn, depends on a culture of trust.

It’s a thesis worth arguing, and Fukuyama tells some interesting stories in sometimes dull prose. But it’s a bit frustrating, as the goal Fukuyama sets himself is to explain just “20 percent” of what goes on. Low-trust France and high-trust Germany are both pretty rich, after all. Still, Fukuyama’s arguments are at least provocative – much of what he’s trying to explain is really economic structure, not economic performance – and he skims a large and under-appreciated body of academic work on the subject.