In John Hood?s Daily Journal ? an archive can be found by clicking on the Carolina Journal tab to the right ? he helpfully points readers a Virginia Postrel column about ?relationship capitalism.? Both columns are worth the read. And if you find yourself seeking more, consider checking out Frank Fukuyama?s 1996 book on the topic. In ?TRUST: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order? Fukuyama details the cultural and historical forces that have shaped the development of trust in societies as diverse as Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Italy and the United States. The essence of his analysis is that societies with high levels of trust (in part, defined as the arms? length relationships John and Virginia extol in their columns) also have high levels of business sophistication. Likewise, low trust societies, which tend toward the tribal and familial end of the spectrum, have low levels of business sophistication and economic wealth.
Fukuyama also uses this model to analyze the changes taking place in countries like China.
