Western Civilization: Enlightenment, Not Ethnicity

Political leaders increasingly invoke 'Western civilization' as a cultural or ethnic creed (Christian faith + ancestry). Fukuyama argues that the operative public meaning — the thing that binds liberal democracies — is the Enlightenment commitment to individual rights, secular public institutions, and the privatization of religion. — How elites define 'Western civilization' shapes alliance politics, immigration debates, and domestic identity politics; shifting the frame from faith/ethnicity to Enlightenment liberalism changes who feels included and what policies follow.