How Does the Presence of a Confucian Culture Affect the Operation of Democracy?

1084 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of confucianism in china culture

In 1979 the third word-wide wave of democratization was due to the overthrow of Portuagese dictatorship in Europe which spread to Asia during the 1980s. The third word-wide wave of democratization did not however affect the undemocratic East Asian countries as they challenged the notion of demoratization and avocated “Asian Values”. Asian values refers to the strong traditional cultural values such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism which co-exists in East Asian societies. The purpose of this essay is to explore Confucian culture and how it may affect the operation of democracy in East Asia.

Confucianism is tradition of political and social thought named after the scholar Kongzi (Confucius 551-479 B.C), it is still widely practiced/ seen in social, legal, theological, ethical and political thought. Kongzi was born into low aristocracy and held an administrative government post. He was a social and political critic throughout his life as a public administrator and teacher to future political advisors. His teachings were focused on how to live one's life in accordance with traditional virtues of ; hummaneness (ren), ritual propriety (li), righteousness (yi) and wisdom (zhi). According to Kongzi the key to social and political stability is the virtue of ren which means “the overarching virtue of being a perfected human being”. Everyone is capable of achieving ren although only a gentleman properly educated in ritual propriety (li), righteousness (yi), right action (xin), and revengance (jing) will be a superior man and able to rule in accordance. consistant with ren. Tu Wei-ming a scholar of Confucianism categorizes confucian thoughts into "political Confucianism," and "Confucian personal ethic". Political confuncianism consists...

... middle of paper ...

...of Singapore
8.First proposed by Seymour Martin Lipset (1959), “Some Social Pre-requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,” American Political Science Review 53.1: 69-105
9.Ibid., p.226. Wang‟s study adopts the “human development perspective of democratization” proposed by Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: the Human
Development Sequence (New York: Cambridge University Press)
10.Ibid., pp.270-80.
11.Liang Musheng 梁木生 (2004), Theory of Democratization in Steps (Tidu minzhu lun 梯度民主论)
(Singapore: Hope Publishing House), pp. 48-56.
12.Tianjian Shi (2008), “China: Democratic Values Supporting an Authoritarian System,” in Yun-han Chu, Larry Diamond, Andrew Nathan, and Doh Chull Shin (eds.), How East Asians View Democracy (New
York: Columbia University Press), 209-237, pp. 235.
13.Ibid., p.82

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Confucianism Daoism And Legalism

    516 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Confucianism is a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius. Confucianism was the code of ethics accepted as the certified religion of most of the immense empires in the territory since the Han Dynasty. Confucianism provided an outline of ethical and religious beliefs that most of the Chinese expanded to make other religions such as Daoism and Legalism. To expand, Confucianism was founded by Confucius and his beliefs on the political and social order of China. Confucius believed that everything would fall into place if children had respect for their parents and if the rulers were honest. In Confucianism, specific roles were followed by each person in the family. The head of the family, the father, was the one primarily in control and then it was the oldest son that was next in line. Confucius had the belief that a ruler has to be everything he wants

    Read More

  • Antigone And Confucius Essay

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Confucius was a philosopher, political intellect and an educator whose philosophies have significantly prejudiced not only the Chinese principles but the entire world evolution. He lived through the “Spring” and “Autumn” epoch of Chinese history, when east central China was separated over a dozen fighting states. The inordinate ailment and grief he saw swayed his political thoughts, which highlighted command, grading and the rule of a compassionate self-governing state.

    Read More

  • The Inefficiency of the U.S. Constitution

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    1. Janda, Kenneth. The Challenge of Democracy. Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, MA. 1999. (Chapter 3 & 4).

    Read More

  • Reasoning Behind The 19th Amendment

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    Janda, Kenneth. Berry, Jeffrey. Goldman, Jerry (2008). The Challenge of Democracy (9th ed.). Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

    Read More

  • The Sierra Club as an Interest Group

    1864 Words  | 4 Pages

    Janda, Kenneth, Jeffrey M. Berry and Jerry Goldman. The Challenge of Democracy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

    Read More

  • The Change of Confucianism over Time

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...

    Read More

  • Aristotle versus Confucius

    1796 Words  | 4 Pages

    The teachings according to Confucius refer to Confucianism. Confucianism is the multifarious classification of ethical, collective, political and pious philosophy developed by Confucius and the old Chinese practices (Bertrand, 1999). Confucianism aim is actually making an individual honorable but also making such an individual the character of learning and of proper manners. The ideal and faultless man has to combine the characters of a saint, an intellectual and gentleman. Confucianism is a religious conviction whose adulation is focused on offerings to the dead. The idea of responsibility is extensive beyond the precincts of morals and holds close to the minutiae of daily living.

    Read More

  • Are Democracy and Capitalism Compatible

    2012 Words  | 5 Pages

    Koelbe, T. and Lipuma, E. (2008), 'Democratizing Democracy: A PostcolonialCritique of Conventional Approaches to the 'Measurement of Democracy', Democratization , Vol.15, No.1, Pp. 16-18

    Read More

  • Confucianism And Legalism Essay

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    In China from ca. 770 B.C.E. – 220 C.C, two magnificent philosophies were introduced to the Chinese civilization. Although Confucianism and Legalism philosophy approaches bare a couple of distinct similarities, the differences between the philosophies are significantly evident. Since we have examined the similarities and differences between Confucianism and Legalism. It’s clear that Confucianism is an ethical and philosophical system that is normally considered one of the world’s religion. Legalism is a political philosophy that does not address higher questions pertaining to the nature and purpose of existence. Just strict and harsh punishments. Even in our modern day these philosophies are still being practices in the Chinese culture. “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”- Confucius

    Read More

  • Envision Equality in John Dewey’s Creative Democracy and Jane Mansbridge’s Using Power/Fighting Power

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    “We have had the habit of thinking of democracy as a kind of political mechanism that will work as long faithful as citizens were reasonably in performing their duties” (Dewey 1939, 2).

    Read More

  • The Influence of Confucianism on Chinese Culture

    1731 Words  | 4 Pages

    Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the same time, its modern value is excavated by many countries in the world, and its international influence is also growing with the rise of China.

    Read More

  • Japanese Literature: Forms of Waka, Tosa Nikki and Oku no Hosomichi

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ebery, Patricia – Walthall, Anne – Palais, James. East Asia, a Cultural, Social, and Political History. Second Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. 2009.

    Read More

  • Democracy in China

    3306 Words  | 7 Pages

    Xiaobo, L., (2011), ‘Two Essays on China’s Quest for Democracy’ Journal of Democracy, 22(1): 154-166.

    Read More

  • DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT

    2269 Words  | 5 Pages

    There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...

    Read More

  • What Is Cultural Relativism

    1421 Words  | 3 Pages

    Henceforth, the concept is important to understand the suitability between Thailand’s norms and the Western norm of democracy’s position to each other. The concept of democracy that will be used in this research will be based on the general perspective of democracy alongside its physical and normative features. Therefore, the cultural relativism concept will explain both democracies of Western and Thailand’s. Thailand may show similar physical features of Western democracy, but not its normative features since Thailand has different norms than what democracy suggests. Based on the understanding of cultural relativism concept, one can argue that Thailand’s norms, limited to its Buddhism and military coup culture, act as the radical cultural relativism view, meanwhile democracy embodies the radical universalism variant, although the universality of democracy is still being questioned because it is believed as the product of Western countries. Jack Donnelly’s Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights is used as the main source to understand this

    Read More

More about How Does the Presence of a Confucian Culture Affect the Operation of Democracy?

Open Document