Confucianism Is Compatible with the Idea of Democracy and Also Encourages the Development Democracy in Asian Societies

Confucianism is compatible with the idea of democracy and also encourages the development democracy in Asian societies

Student Name: Yutian Cao

Student Number: s2651204

Course Code: 7012IBA

Assessment Item: Essay

Due Date: 12-10-2012

Tutor’s Name: Gregory Chaikin

Word Count:3044

Since the idea of democracy has been introduced to the non-democratic nations of Asia, such as China and Singapore; there has been a debate of the compatibility between democracy and Confucianism. A number of scholars claim that the Asian values or Confucian values decrease the public support for democracy because of the contradictory values between the two. On the other hand, however; the majority of literature shows that Confucian values are not only compatible with the idea of democracy, but are also embedded in the concept of democracy (Chan, 2007). The purpose of this essay is to argue that despite some inconsistent factors amongst Confucian values and democratic values, there are some more compatible values between Confucianism and democracy. Basically, there are 4 Confucian values which are compatible with the idea of democracy, including people’s will, the nature of human is good, the doctrine of mean and independent personality. In addition, the paper will also argue that Confucianism encourages the development of democracy in Asian societies. More specifically, some of Confucian values will support the development of democracy in Asian countries, such as political power and independent personality; also some of Confucian value will temper the excesses of Western-style democracy in Asian countries. This paper will select China to be a sample of Asian country in order to better support the arguments. In general, this essay will separate into 5 main sections. Each of the first 4 sections will explain how the 4 Confucian values are compatible with the idea of democracy in terms of analyzing the Chinese case. Further, the fifth section will examine how Confucianism encourages the development of democracy in Asian societies. Finally, the paper will briefly summarize the findings.

Generally speaking, the majority of values of Confucianism are compatible with the idea of democracy. This section will explain how people’s will, the nature of human is good, the doctrine of mean and independent personality are compatible with the idea of democracy. In the first place, the valid political power of Confucianism is ‘People’s will’, also called ‘Heaven’s will’, that