Fifteenth in a series
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Francis Fukuyama, perhaps best known for "The End of History," wrote an equally fascinating book titled "Trust." Taking trust as the critical factor, Fukuyama ana- lyzed the institutional and sociological patterns of different societies. This enabled him to completely ignore the rather tiresome East vs. West syndrome, and instead find interesting comparisons between societies across continents and cultures.
Italians and Chinese, for example, having often been exploited by their ruling establishments across the ages, tend not to trust anything or anyone associated with the state apparatus. Thus both Italians and Chinese rely on kinship relationships or kinshiplike relationships, such as the Mafia and the triads, respectively.