Beyond elitism: Community ideal for a modern East Asia

• Main Author: TAN, Sor-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2009
• Subjects: Confucian Democracy; New Confucianism; Constitutionalism; Ethics and Political Philosophy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2542; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3799/viewcontent/Beyond_Elitism_pv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

It is often remarked that East Asian polities have been hierarchical and the "elite" category continues to figure prominently in works on Chinese society and politics. Many scholars believe that hierarchy and elitism are deeply rooted in Confucianism, which served as the state orthodoxy in imperial China and provided the "psycho-cultural construct" of the way of life in other East Asian cultural communities as well. It is therefore not surprising that some should believe that if modern Confucian societies are to be democratic at all, elitism must be reconciled with democracy. In contrast, elitism is commonly a pejorative term in liberal democracies today, especially the United States, notwithstanding the portrayal of these polities by political scientists as cases of "democratic elitism." Presenting "democracy with Confucian characteristics" as elitism, therefore, highlights its challenge to liberal forms of democracy. Taking elitism seriously, Daniel A. Bell, in his Beyond Liberal Democracy: Political Thinking for an East Asian Context, offers us an institutional arrangement that combines what he sees as an elitist Confucian rule of virtue with a transparent and accountable democratic government that would check abuses of power.