Democracy in Confucian Societies: The Challenge of Justification

Abstract

Westerners rarely question the importance and desirability of democracy, but the story is rather different in East Asia. Many Hong Kong businessmen would gladly put Mr Patten on the next flight back home, democratic ideals have little allure among Chinese peasants preoccupied with pressing family and economic matters (Schue, 1992: 161–2), and Singaporean officials will unabashedly assert that relatively benign authoritarian systems do better at providing such benefits as safe streets, good jobs, and political stability (Roy, 1994). In short, there is widespread indifference if not hostility to the idea of democracy in East Asia, a phenomenon which poses a problem for democracy activists seeking to promote their preferred system of government. Some may plunge into despair, others may campaign for a General MacArthur-style forced imposition of democracy, but my concern here is with those thinking about the issue of how democracy can be justified to East Asians.

This is a revised version of a paper presented at the 1993 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association and to members of the National University of Singapore’s Department of Political Science, subsequently published in the French language periodical Lekton (Fall 1993, vol. III, no. 2). Thanks are due to those audiences, and I am especially grateful to my coauthors and to Selina Chen and David Fott for their most helpful written commentary, as well as to Lekton editor Daniel Weinstock for permission to reprint sections of the article.