The intrinsic values of Confucian democracy and Dewey's pragmatist method

• Main Author: TAN, Sor-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Pragmatism; John Dewey; Democratization in China; comparative political theory; Ethics and Political Philosophy; Political Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3337; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4592/viewcontent/Pragmatist_Method__Confucian_Democracy_final_draft.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Given the historical association of Confucianism, or rather the Ru school of thought, with autocratic government since the Han dynasty, one of the challenges for contemporary scholars of Confucianism is to interpret and reconstruct Confucianism to guard against authoritarian tendencies without surrendering its distinctive ethical-political vision. Confucianism is incompatible with the conventional understanding of democracy as liberal democracy best represented by the United States, focused on limiting government with checks and balances, prioritizing protection of the civil and political rights of individuals, regular elections of representatives in which partisan competition for power offers citizens very little real choice, and it is debatable if the changes of political party in power have improved the lives of ordinary Americans, whichever side they support. This model of democracy is premised on possessive individualism, which assumes individuals to be fundamentally separate from one another, the only legitimate valuable social relationships are those each enters into by choice, and government is legitimized by citizens’ consent and a social contract. Its politics is focused on relationships of conflict and competition, and cooperation is possible and justified only from an individualistic self-interested perspective.