Fukuyama: Stuttgart 21 delay signals democratic failure

Francis Fukuyama, the American political scientist known for 'The End of History?', has issued a scathing critique of the Stuttgart 21 railway project, whose completion has been postponed to 2031. In a rare intervention on German infrastructure policy, Fukuyama argues that the chronic delays and cost overruns of Stuttgart 21 exemplify a broader crisis of liberal democracy. The project, initially approved in 2007 with a budget of €4.5 billion and a planned opening in 2019, has seen its costs balloon to over €11 billion. Fukuyama contends that such failures erode public trust in democratic institutions and decision-making processes. His analysis, published in a German newspaper, connects the local controversy to global concerns about governance and the effectiveness of liberal democratic systems.