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Discussing An Outline of a Theory of Civilization by the Japanese thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi, this essay shows how theorists of liberal nationalism might draw on "non-Western" theoretical resources to enrich their normative ideas and better appreciate their own tradition. I argue that Fukuzawa's work represents an alternative strand of liberal nationalism that complements its mainstream counterpart pioneered by David Miller, Yael Tamir, and others. More specifically, I argue that Fukuzawa's contributions help us reconsider three central claims made by his more mainstream peers: (1) cosmopolitanism poses the most important threat to liberal nationalism, (2) the strength of liberal nationalism lies in its perceptiveness about ordinary people's sense of national belonging, and (3) liberal nationalism emerged in mid-nineteenth-century Europe and spread elsewhere in the age of decolonization. In so doing, I show how the current "comparative turn" in political theory can benefit a specific debate—on liberal nationalism—within the discipline.

"During the sweeping changes taking place in 19th century Japan, no thinker was more important than Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901). Born into a low-ranking samurai family, he traveled to Nagasaki at age nineteen to study Dutch. In 1858, he was sent to Edo to teach Dutch to domain students. In his spare time he taught himself English using a Dutch-English dictionary. Two years later, he was appointed a translator of diplomatic documents at the shogunal office of foreign affairs. In 1862, he founded a school that is now Keio University. Eager to introduce Western history and ideas to the Japanese, he wrote a series of books, including the bestselling Conditions in the West (1866). In the late 1870s, he turned his attention to the prospects for parliamentary government in Japan. The central government was firmly in place and elective prefectural assemblies were about to be established. He wrote essays on the workings of such a system, drawing on his earlier travels abroad and his reading of de Tocqueville, John Stuart Mill, Walter Bagehot, and others. A realist and optimist, Fukuzawa assured his readers of the eventual success of parliamentary government in Japan. This book provides the first-English language translation of five essays that bear directly on the development of his thought and its legacy in Japanese culture."--Bloomsbury Publishing

Abstract
This review essay juxtaposes Fukuzawa Yukichi's Bourgeois Liberalism by Minhyuk Hwang with Progress, Pluralism, and Politics by David Williams, both published in 2020. Although the two books are motivated by different concerns and are likely to attract different audiences, I show that they can be read together to throw light on the complicated relationship between liberalism and empire from a comparative angle. On the one hand, I draw on Williams's book and other recent works in the history of political thought to criticize some aspects of Hwang's discussion of Fukuzawa. On the other hand, I draw on Hwang's book and other studies on Fukuzawa to tease out the implications of Williams's book for an important issue that has been marginalized in the recent Anglophone scholarship on liberalism and empire: the imperial temptation for non-Western liberals.

Заслуги Фукудзавы Юкити (1835–1901) в деле формирования современной (после революции Мэйдзи) Японии весьма велики. Он написал множество работ, знакомящих японцев с достижениями западной цивилизации. Фукуд­зава основал также первый в стране частный университет Кэйо и тем са­мым внес значительный вклад в становление системы образования. В Япо­нии его принято считать великим просветителем. Вместе с тем оценки деятельности Фукудзавы и его идей претерпевали существенные измене­ния. К концу жизни он был неотъемлемой частью истеблишмента. Положи­тельное отношение к нему официоза сохранялось и некоторое время после его смерти, но в 1930-е гг. оно изменилось, поскольку идеи Фукудзавы от­носительно независимости и самоуважения личности оказались неприемле­мы для тоталитарного государства. Однако вместе с крахом милитаризма именно эти идеи позволили ему войти в пантеон героев послевоенной де­мократической Японии.