Recently I've been thinking a bit about the thesis driven in Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man, that the triumph of liberal democracy and capitalism has led to the "end of history", or rather, the end of significant sociocultural evolution. While I'm sure many of you doubt the conclusions drawn by Fukuyama and I myself see several problems with the thesis, it got me thinking about other "end of history"-scenarios involving non-democratic polities.
If one of the classical world dominance-interested empires we know and love to wank (Romans, Mongols, British, Nazis, take your pick) actually succeeded in establishing a stable global political hegemony, could a similar situation as the one described by Fukuyama arise, a world where there may be events such as scientific discoveries, civil wars and whatnot but where sociocultural evolution for all purposes has ended, barring natural catastrophes and such? Or is this evolution naturally drawn towards more democratic forms of government? Or do you have another view entirely?
Related to the above questions, how would purely cultural evolution look in a world where the struggles against hostile ideologies and polities had ended? What would centuries of prosperity and unchallenged power and ideas do to the mindset of the classes that benefit from the state of affairs?
(I'm not sure in which forum this thread would fit the best, if a moderator thinks it should be moved, feel free.)