Reconciling Socialism and Confucianism? Reviving Tradition in China
Bell, Daniel A.
ARGUMENTS Reconciling Socialism and Confucianism? Reviving Tradition in China DANIEL A. BELL Communism has lost its capacity to inspire the Chinese. But what will replace it? And...
...Independent social and political criticism Socrates was famous for truth-seeking, and he was merciless in exposing the errors of those who made false claims to the truth...
...He can be reached by e-mail at daniel.a.bell@gmail.com...
...If the concern is to develop a feasible and desirable political theory for the Chinese context, then it depends on what Chinese people actually think now...
...Perhaps the most sacred political value in the West is one person/one vote: those who question this value are thought to have lost their moral bearings (in the nineteenth century, it was a different story: John Stuart Mill justified democratic mechanisms in terms of their consequences, and he was prepared to contemplate extra votes for educated people...
...The ideal, again, is not a world where everybody treats everybody else as an equal but one where the interests of strangers would be taken seriously...
...Contrary to the fears of some Western analysts that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would showcase extreme forms of Chinese nationalism, the gold medal winners from China often seemed humble and kind to opponents...
...Daniel A. Bell is Professor of Ethics and Political Theory at Tsinghua University (Beijing...
...One is that an ideal society would do away with all power relationships, whether based on status or class (John Rawls’s original position and Jürgen Habermas’s ideal speech situation are meant to express the ideal of equal power...
...But a Confucian twist, so to speak, is that criticism is best carried out on the basis of social harmony and trust...
...Chinese intellectuals only looked to the West when traditional social and political life broke down, and it may take a similar crisis in the West before large numbers of Western intellectuals turn to Confucianism for hope and inspiration...
...She is a national star who often appears on television to lecture about the everyday benefits of Confucianism...
...And Confucian educators work on long-term moral transformation by teaching the Confucian classics to young children...
...The ancient Confucian thinker Xunzi proposed the idea of social rituals that include people of different status...
...That’s how economic reform proceeded over the past three decades, and such a pragmatic spirit may inspire political reform over the next three...
...As Jiang Qing puts it, we need to be careful about the state’s (mis)using Confucianism, but Confucianism can also use the state...
...when the personal life is cultivated, the family will be regulated...
...These values derive from the “original Confucianism” of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi, before Confucianism became established (and often misused) as state orthodoxy...
...But this sort of approach doesn’t take Confucianism seriously as a tradition that can enrich and challenge the liberal tradition...
...So if the elderly continue to strive for self-improvement and maintain social networks, perhaps they should be given extra shares of political power...
...Hence, he tries to articulate an interpretation that addresses the political need for stable institutions founded partly, if not mainly, on Chinese political traditions...
...And what should replace it...
...It is fine to encourage private media to report as they see fit (so long as they avoid extreme violence and pornography), but an important task of the media should also be to promote social harmony by portraying moral exemplars, appealing to people’s better nature, and expressing sympathy for the disadvantaged...
...It’s politics for the people...
...All political theories should allow for the possibility of mutual enrichment...
...But the end is not a universal solidarity, where everyone treats everyone else as an equal...
...But the younger cadres in their forties and fifties tend to support such efforts, and time is on their side...
...Confucian ethics is the obvious resource to help fill the moral vacuum that often accompanies modernization...
...Such reporting could not have been carried out under a market system: a journalist friend from Singapore told me that her stories about the Paralympics were often rejected by her editor on the grounds that they wouldn’t sell papers...
...A meritocratic house of government would complement a democratic house and— however imperfect—would better approximate the ideal of global justice...
...Once the Chinese state acts morally in accordance with Confucian ideas, then it can articulate and promote its soft power to the rest of the world...
...These rituals are particularly evident in sporting activities, past and present...
...Today, the Chinese government emphasizes “harmony” and family values such as “filial piety...
...But the critique of Marxism, in my view, should not be “totalizing...
...The party itself is becoming more meritocratic—it now encourages high-performing students to join— and the increased emphasis on educated cadres is likely to generate more sympathy for Confucian values...
...Following the example of the early Confucian thinkers, they leave metaphysical commitments open, focusing on the problems of earthly life...
...Concern for the disadvantaged Socialists and left Confucians can agree that the government’s first obligation is to provide for the disadvantaged...
...He emphasizes that other religions would be tolerated, and he compares his ideal to state support for official religions in Denmark and the United Kingdom, where other religions flourish...
...The more academic revival includes historical studies and interpretations of key figures in the Confucian tradition that are not meant to have direct bearing on contemporary society...
...Liberal Confucianism tends to reject such possibilities and, not surprisingly, is not popular among Chinese intellectuals...
...Such rituals help to explain the practice of lifelong employment in large Japanese and Korean corporations...
...Of greater interest for our purposes are the competing interpretations of political Confucianism, which are meant to have an impact on our social and political lives...
...These trends are likely to continue and intensify...
...It is only a means to the good life, but what exactly is the good life...
...Yu Dan also visits Chinese prisons and lectures prisoners about Confucian values...
...They need to be enriched, and sometimes constrained, by Confucian values...
...Left Confucians propose political models that are meant to work better than Western-style democracy in realizing global justice...
...Cadres at the newly built Communist Party School in Shanghai proudly tell visitors that the main building is modeled on a Confucian scholar’s desk...
...Another is the idea that if people treat each other as social equals, they are more likely to support measures that reduce the gap between rich and poor...
...But the key obstacle to universalizing Confucianism, perhaps, is the gap between theory and practice...
...But they also need to be adapted in China...
...when the family is regulated, the state will be in order...
...The Confucian scholar Jiang Qing has proposed a house of government (the House of Historical Continuity) with the explicit task of maintaining the continuity of various traditions, including those of minority groups such as Tibetan Buddhists...
...The ritual is hierarchical...
...Confucians are realists in the sense that they take for granted that power relationships and social hierarchies will exist in all large-scale societies...
...Confucian-inspired social critics such as Huang Zongxi, Yang Jisheng, and Gu Yanwu penned more radical criticisms outside the formal channels...
...But the revival of Confucianism is not just government-sponsored...
...The most optimistic scenario is for experimentation with different forms of political participation at subnational levels of government and then the adaptation of what works at the national level...
...Greeting and making way for each other, the archers ascend the hall, and returning they drink a salute...
...Another key difference has to do with how to realize “politics for the people...
...Interpretations of Confucianism should also depend upon empirical evidence: for example, it would be important to test the idea that caring for elderly parents is an important mechanism for extending a sense of empathy to others...
...Jiang Qing has also proposed the reintroduction of state-supported Confucian burial rituals following natural disasters like the Sichuan earthquake (though he allows for the possibility that members of minority groups would follow their own rituals...
...The meaning of “left Confucianism” will become clearer if I sketch some traditional socialist values and show how they might incorporate Confucian characteristics...
...Still, there is a need to consider the more critical interpretations of Confucianism...
...From an academic point of view, however, her contribution may not be significant: she deliberately avoids controversial themes and resorts to ahistorical simplifications to make her points...
...As a practical matter, interpretations of Confucianism are more likely to win acceptance in reformist circles of the ruling political class if they are also seen to draw upon socialist ideals...
...The most influential intellectual involved in the revival of Confucianism is Yu Dan, who has written a self-help book on the Analects of Confucius that has sold over ten million copies (including six million pirated copies...
...The history of other modernizing East Asian countries suggests that strong bureaucratic states in nondemocratic contexts can successfully promote relatively egalitarian forms of economic development...
...Early Confucian thinkers assumed that their ideals were universally valid...
...Today, the language of “not losing face” is used to express this ideal...
...How might that happen...
...Reviving Tradition in China DANIEL A. BELL Communism has lost its capacity to inspire the Chinese...
...Religious toleration Today, most leftists recognize the ideal of tolerating different religions...
...But they are more central to sporting traditions that developed in Confucianinfluenced East Asian societies...
...By participating in common rituals, those with more status develop feelings of care for the others and thus become more willing to do things in their economic interest...
...Communitarian ways of life and civility break down...
...In the West, most people assume that states must be either democratic or authoritarian, and alternatives that do not fit neatly within that dichotomy are often dismissed out of hand...
...More generally, they help explain why Japan and Korea—perhaps the most socially hierarchical societies in East Asia—also have relatively equal distributions of wealth and do not suffer from 10 percent unemployment rates in bad times...
...In a new and exciting development, inconceivable just ten years ago, Chinese new leftists and Confucian intellectuals are engaged in dialogues about a left interpretation of Confucianism that stresses such values as the responsibility of intellectuals to criticize bad policies and the obligation of the state to provide for the material well-being of the people...
...But Confucianism is a rich and diverse tradition, and it’s worth asking which Confucianism(s) are being revived...
...There are several reasons why social and economic equality are thought to go together...
...To be fair, the official promotion of Confucian values has been an improvement compared to the past...
...Most people—in China, at least—do not want to be viewed as individualistic...
...A world where different people live in accordance with different values would have been considered second best...
...For example, a boss in Confucian-influenced Japan or South Korea might enjoy singing karaoke with a worker...
...The national focus of the democratically elected political leaders is assumed...
...The Confucian way to solidarity is different in both means and ends, as expressed in the famous opening passage of The Great Learning: The extension of knowledge consists in the investigation of things...
...The first is to learn care and compassion within the family and then apply family-like labels and norms to non-family members...
...The competition for social status and material resources becomes fiercer and fiercer, with declining social responsibility and otherregarding outlooks...
...The elderly do not get even one vote for choosing top decision makers, much less extra votes...
...Political surveys show that attachment to Confucian values has increased with modernization...
...In short, this mix of psychological, economic, political, and philosophical trends helps to explain the revival of Confucianism in China...
...Clearly, there is a need for a new moral foundation for political rule in China, and the government has moved closer to an official embrace of Confucianism...
...Whether in the family or in the political realm, criticisms should be motivated by affection rather than hostility and expressed in gentle and humble ways, so as to maintain harmonious relationships...
...But Confucians also take seriously the interests of our ancestors...
...Her account of the Analects may seem apolitical, but it deflects attention from the economic and political conditions that cause people’s misery...
...When things are investigated, knowledge is extended...
...Philosophers draw on the ideas of great Confucian thinkers in dealing with social and political reform...
...Equally serious is the absence of family members and friends...
...Hence, when Mencius says the government should give first consideration to “old men without wives, old women without husbands, old people without children, and young children without fathers,” he doesn’t just mean that these people are materially poor...
...For example, health insurance in Singapore is family- rather than individualbased, with family members responsible for each other’s insurance, including the obligation of adult children to take out insurance for elderly parents...
...Any interpretation must be consistent with basic aspirations, though it should also push to improve those aspirations...
...Concern for basic material well-being Socialists seek to reduce the gap between rich and poor...
...One such is “Liberal Confucianism,” promoted largely by scholars outside of mainland China...
...It could also be argued that Confucian ideas already influence state policy...
...Today, few government officials invoke Confucian values to justify the subordination of women (and some feminist academics like Chan Sin-yee are reinterpreting Confucianism so that its central values, like the idea that we should all strive to become exemplary persons, do not exclude women...
...But there is still a long way to go...
...Here’s where Confucianism comes in: the tradition is based on the assumption that the good life lies in social relationships, in responsibility and political commitment...
...Left Confucians do not take a strong position regarding religion...
...Perhaps the most influential form, disparaged by twentiethcentury critics, is traditional “conservative” or “official” Confucianism...
...They are disadvantaged (partly, if not mainly) because they are deprived of key human relations...
...And China, so large and diverse, is a unique case...
...The contrast between harmony and conformity comes from the Zuo Zhuan, where it clearly referred to the idea that the ruler should be open to different political views...
...Confucian solidarity is also realized by means of rituals that civilize and elevate, particularly in the context of competitive relationships that would otherwise degenerate into hostility, if not warfare...
...For Confucians, peoples’ identities are constituted by the values and practices of their ancestors, and it doesn’t seem far-fetched to think about how to secure their interests in social and political life...
...So which values are truly universal...
...The most obvious are the prohibitions against slavery, genocide, and systematic racial discrimination...
...More problematic, she is openly committed to a relatively individualistic form of Daoism, and her interpretation of Confucianism downplays key themes such as social responsibility and political commitment...
...Yes, the revival of Confucianism over the past few years is reason for optimism...
...Perhaps small, homogenous societies endowed with substantial natural resources, such as Norway, can afford equality all the way through, but Confucians recognize that the choice for most societies is between a socially egalitarian society like the United States, where power is typically expressed through material wealth, and societies governed by informal rituals, where the powerful do not need to rely on wealth to show their “superiority...
...The history of “official Confucianism” in Imperial China does give reason to be wary of state misuses of Confucianism, but it also offers some inspiring moments...
...Is it just about fighting for one’s interests...
...China is a rising economic power, and with economic might comes cultural pride...
...One idea is to give extra votes to elderly people: Confucians assume that wisdom normally increases with age as people’s life experience deepens...
...The strident and self-righteous criticisms of some Western politicians and Westernbased human rights organizations often fall on deaf ears in China because they are viewed as rude and disrespectful even by those who might agree with their substance...
...In Confucian-influenced South Korea and southern Chinese provinces like Fujian, for example, many households and communities still practice ancestor worship...
...The extension of the terms of family endearment to non-family members is far more widespread than in most Western languages and contributes to a sense of solidarity in East Asian societies...
...Hence, it shouldn’t be surprising that in China the obligation to secure people’s means of subsistence is widely held to trump other political values...
...Today, social critics have drawn on the contrast between harmony and conformity to urge the government to be tolerant of differences and not simply enforce one dominant state ideology...
...Even left liberals like John Rawls stipulate without much argument that civil and political rights take precedence over economic justice...
...Perhaps because of the civility campaigns prior to the games, Chinese fans were generally respectful of other teams and athletes...
...Rather, ties are extended with diminishing intensity, so that strangers will be treated well but without the degree of love shared among family members...
...From a Confucian perspective, however, there is also cause to worry about a media model that focuses almost exclusively on bad news...
...Early Confucianism was not meant to answer existential questions about human suffering and life after death, and it accepts the idea that religions may do a better job in that respect...
...It is a sad truth that people are more inclined to learn from others when their own ways prove inadequate...
...There are obvious constraints on religious freedom in China, and the state does not officially support the Confucian religion...
...Social welfare reformers still look more to Europe than to East and Southeast Asia...
...To feel good about ourselves, we also need to be good to others...
...But modernity also has a downside: it often leads to atomism and psychological anxiety...
...Social democrats argue for realizing the value of solidarity by means of a state-enforced system of equal rights for all citizens...
...Sociologists study the thousands of experiments in education and social living that are inspired by Confucian values...
...Now, poised to become a global power, it’s China’s turn to affirm its cultural heritage...
...Confucians have emphasized two mechanisms...
...when the will is sincere, the mind is rectified...
...If a choice must be made between social and economic equality, then Confucians would choose economic equality and make social inequality work to support it...
...But that’s also the problem: liberalism is used as the moral standpoint to evaluate Confucianism...
...Still, the idea of state support for Confucianism goes beyond the North European model...
...In imperial Chinese history, the ideal of the independent social critic was institutionalized in the form of the Censorate—scholarofficials who had a mandate to criticize the government’s mistaken policies...
...Confucianism is not just a vehicle to promote liberal values...
...One of the most famous lines of the Analects of Confucius—that exemplary persons should pursue harmony but not conformity—has clear political implications...
...Note the difference with legal institutions like the U.S...
...For example, Chinese media were flooded with coverage of the heroic feats of disabled athletes during the Paralympics...
...For example, the influential new leftist scholar Wang Shaoguang argues that the Hu-Wen administration has been aggressively tackling the problem of economic inequality and promoting social welfare reforms in the past few years (“The Great Transformation,” boundary 2 35:2 [2008...
...They argue that Confucianism should be taught in schools and promoted in villages and communities, with some sort of financial support from the state— partly, in order to train future rulers in Confucian ethics so that they will rule with moral sensitivity...
...A meritocratic political assembly designed to represent the interests of future generations and foreigners exists only in left Confucian dreams...
...Conversely, the cooperative approaches of such organizations as the Danish Institute for Human Rights are more effective...
...Beyond China...
...So which interpretation of Confucianism makes the most sense...
...Rigorous experiments by psychologists show striking cognitive differences between Chinese and Americans, with Chinese more likely to use contextual and dialectical approaches to solving problems...
...To a certain extent, they can also agree about what it means to be disadvantaged: it means being deprived of material goods that underpin any decent conception of the good life...
...But such utopian ideals may only be appropriate for small communities of like-minded people, like Israeli kibbutzim, or for advanced technological societies where machines do almost all the unwanted labor, as in Marx’s communism...
...Confucianstyle education meant to improve social ethics has yet to make any substantial dent in widespread corruption...
...Theorists of medical ethics discuss the importance of family-based decision making in medical settings...
...There is no Censorate...
...Confucians agree—the ultimate end of politics is a form of government that serves the whole world’s peoples...
...China is probably beyond the “Rawlsian minimum”—few Chinese are starving or malnourished—and yet the idea that electoral democracy should wait until the economy is more developed is not nearly as controversial as it might be among Western leftists...
...In China, the media have been opening up, but far too slowly...
...Another way in which “official Confucianism” would influence policy is that civil servants would be able to take paid leave for a limited period of mourning after the death of a parent, as they do in South Korea...
...Left Confucianism attempts to combine the socialist with the Confucian tradition in a way that allows Confucianism to enrich and change socialism...
...Today, of course, the media are regarded as an important vehicle for public criticism, with investigative journalists aiming to expose official wrongdoing and social injustice...
...It is an implicit justification for the status quo...
...Confucians take for granted that human desires can undermine social cooperation, but the task is to civilize those desires rather than suppress them...
...Abroad, the government has been promoting Confucianism via branches of the Confucius Institute, a Chinese language and culture center similar to France’s Alliance Française and Germany’s Goethe Institute...
...Certainly, everybody has the potential to become morally exemplary, but in real life the capacity to make competent and morally justifiable political judgments varies among people, and an important task of the political system is to identify those with above average capacity...
...Even during competition, they are exemplary persons”—echoes the rituals of sumo wrestlers...
...For Marxists, the path to solidarity lies in class revolution that would abolish private ownership of the means of production...
...Even atheists do not argue for banning religion...
...And he explicitly makes room for the political representation of other Chinese religions like Buddhism and Daoism in his proposed third house of government, the House of Historical Continuity...
...Of course, many human rights violations occur off the record, but the task is to expose the gap between public allegiance to basic human rights and the sad reality of ongoing abuse...
...The revival of Confucianism in mainland China is too recent to affirm the superiority of any interpretation...
...Perhaps economic rights might be more secure under a fully elected government...
...when the mind is rectified, the personal life is cultivated...
...Beyond that, however, there will be clear areas of divergence: left Confucianism will place more emphasis on meritocracy in politics, memorization in education, paternalism in government-funded media, and ritual as a mechanism for securing the interests of the disadvantaged...
...Throughout Chinese imperial history, Confucianism was combined with Legalism, China’s other main political tradition, to justify blind obedience to parents and rulers, the use of harsh punishments as a tool of social control, and the subordination of women...
...Mencius famously defended the well-field system that provides for a relatively equal distribution of land at the local community level on the grounds that most people need the basic means of subsistence in order to develop their moral natures...
...Solidarity with strangers The value of solidarity is central to the socialist tradition (and less central to the liberal tradition...
...In China, my impression is that reporting on the disabled did succeed in changing social attitudes: it’s hard to prove such claims, but today more disabled people are seen in the streets of Beijing...
...Is it not possible that Confucianism can offer a compelling alternative to Western liberalism...
...But some Western leftists object to any role for religion in public life...
...Max Weber’s view that Confucianism is not conducive to economic development has been widely questioned in view of the economic success of East Asian countries with a Confucian heritage...
...Confucius’s account of the gentleman-archer—“Exemplary persons are not competitive, but they must still compete in archery...
...In its best moments, Confucianism has shown openness to other traditions like Legalism, Buddhism, and Daoism, to the point that it’s often hard to distinguish these theories in practice...
...Leftists in the West tend to emphasize the interests of the current generation of the world’s peoples and more recently, in response to the environmental movement, the interests of future generations...
...Hence, it’s not inconceivable to be a Confucian in social and political life and, say, a Buddhist or Christian religiously...
...What is left Confucianism...
...But which people count...
...To the extent possible, the elderly and the young, as well as bosses and assistants, should disregard status when they engage in everyday social behavior—for example, they should address each other using first names...
...It would also reflect what Chinese intellectuals regard as pressing needs: for example, Jiang Qing thinks that a new philosophical foundation for the state is needed...
...Such values may still be worth promoting, but they are often used to justify quietude and submission to the powers-that-be...
...and when the state is in order, there is peace throughout the world (Tian Xia...
...Such rituals also inform sports that developed in Western countries: helping opponents up after a fall, for example, or exchanging sweat-soaked shirts at the end of football games...
...The idea that the state has an obligation to deal with material deprivation goes back more than two thousand years...
...In short, left Confucianism needs to be translated into practice...
...Of course, there is resistance as well...
...One problem with one person/one vote is that equality ends at the boundaries of the political community: those outside are neglected...
...According to “liberal Confucians,” Confucianism need not conflict with values such as human rights and democracy...
...They worry less than Western liberals do about these relationships and hierarchies, particularly when they are based on age and achievement...
...Making money, they realize, doesn’t necessarily lead to wellbeing...
...Moreover, the elderly are usually less subject to the sexual passions that often get in the way of sound judgment...
...Such insurance schemes might seem peculiar in Western countries, but they are not nearly as controversial in East Asian countries...
...The renewed academic interest is also driven by normative concerns: an increasing number of critical intellectuals are turning to Confucianism to think of ways of dealing with China’s current social and political predicament...
...If it’s just talk, nobody will listen...
...This Confucian “tradition” aims to influence contemporary politics, but it stands apart from state power and orthodoxy, always ready to point to the gap between the ideals and the social reality...
...Rawls does allow for very poor societies on the verge of starvation to prioritize the right to food, but that’s about as far as most leftists in the West are prepared to go...
...The idea is that ties should be extended from the family to the state and ultimately to the whole world...
...In Western countries, they also favor social equality: a society where people treat each other as equals regardless of status...
...In its encounter with Western political theories, however, Confucianism has been the student rather than the teacher, and it’s worth asking under what conditions it might be found compelling by Western liberals...
...Confucians do not deny that an ideal society would do away with all power relationships...
...Which Confucianism...
...For example, the interpretation should build on widely shared values like concern for the disadvantaged...
...The media tend to serve the party rather than the disadvantaged...
...In Western political history, by contrast, poverty was considered a problem for political stability or a matter for charity until the eighteenth century...
...There has also been a resurgence of interest among academics...
...the boss sings first and perhaps for a longer time, but after singing and drinking together, affective bonds are strengthened, and the boss is less likely to dismiss the worker in difficult times...
...But let me discuss the outlines of what I take to be a particularly promising one, which draws on the socialist tradition for inspiration and so can be termed “left Confucianism...
...Economists try to measure the economic effect of such Confucian values as filial piety...
...Those working in the field of business ethics research the influence of Confucian values on business practices...
...In the late sixteenth century, as Yu Ying-shih notes, Matteo Ricci was amazed to discover that the Chinese religious atmosphere was highly tolerant, with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism all seen as capturing a vision of the same Dao (Way...
...Making Confucianism official would bring such policies into public debate and perhaps lead to improvements...
...If enemies question each other’s motives, the result may be more bad blood...
...Material in this essay is drawn from his book China’s New Confucianism: Politics and Everyday Life in a Changing Society (Princeton University Press, 2008...
...The value of meritocracy is deeply embedded in East Asian political discourse, and proposals to realize it are not typically seen as eccentric or dangerous...
...The parts of Confucianism that are consistent with liberalism should be promoted, and the parts that conflict should be rejected...
...Feminist theorists draw parallels between care ethics and the Confucian emphasis on empathy, particularity, and the family as a school of moral education...
...Even those who make it to the top ask, “What now...
...And the key mechanism for realizing global justice is meritocracy—equality of opportunity in education and government, with positions of leadership being distributed to the most virtuous and qualified members of the community...
...More concretely, a Confucian-inspired model might mean space for private media but also funding for public media that seek to promote social harmony rather than loyalty to the party...
...when adult children care for elderly parents, for example, they cultivate such virtues as empathy and humility...
...ARGUMENTS Reconciling Socialism and Confucianism...
...At the level of principle, a small set of crucial human rights are valued by all governments, religions, and traditions...
...For French revolutionaries, the task was to change hierarchical social practices—banning, for example, the use of the formal pronoun vous in favor of the informal tu...
...Meanwhile, it is important for the West to tolerate, if not respect, morally justifiable differences...
...Another proposal is for a meritocratic house of government, with deputies selected by competitive examinations, which could secure the interests typically neglected by democratic assemblies—those of foreigners, future generations, ancestors, and minority groups...
...But perhaps politicians should be praised when they set a good moral example for others, so long as leaders who act badly are also subject to criticism...
...Even democracies that work well tend to focus on the interests of citizens and neglect the interests of foreigners...
...But I should address the worry that leftists are using the Confucian label simply to promote Western socialist ideas, a concern that parallels my critique of “liberal Confucianism...
...Without entirely rejecting westernization, they believe that stable and legitimate political arrangements need to be founded, at least partly, on political ideals from their own traditions...
...The idea of focusing solely on individual well-being seems too self-centered...
...It’s easy to forget that the seventy-six-millionstrong Chinese Communist Party is a large and diverse organization...
...And how is this ideal of “graded love” to be realized...
...Global justice Socialists often take a global perspective on justice...
...I do not deny that such “Western” values as social democracy, solidarity, human rights, and the rule of law need to be adopted in China...
...He argues that Marxism no longer appeals to people, and Confucianism is more likely to do so...
...But some left Confucians like Jiang Qing do take Confucianism seriously as a religion and argue that there should be official state sponsorship of Confucianism...
...But there is plenty of empirical evidence that democratization at low levels of wealth may hinder economic growth (see Randall Peerenboom, China Modernizes, 2007...
...Such views help to explain why East Asian states with a Confucian heritage often rely on the family to provide welfare services, with the state stepping in to help those without family members...
...for example, parents are entitled to a share of property if an adult child dies intestate in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, notwithstanding their different political and legal systems...
...Supreme Court, which does not have legislative power and has no mandate to protect the interests of non-citizens outside the national territory...
...But Confucians would add that being disadvantaged is not just about lacking money...
...The state takes responsibility for elderly people without relatives...
...But political leaders, especially leaders of big countries like China, make decisions that affect the rest of the world (consider global warming), and so they need to consider the interests of the rest of the world...
...At the level of principle, Western liberals and left Confucians also share “thicker” values, such as commitments to gender equality and the need to criticize bad governments...
...At some point, that same history shows, the regimes will need to allow for political participation that gives more voice to the disadvantaged, but change need not come all at once, particularly in these turbulent times...
...In East Asia, it’s not just the Chinese Communist Party that says that the right to food comes first...
...There has hardly been any reform of political institutions inspired by lower-level reforms...
...Such work is practical, not philosophical...
...Another difference between Western liberals and Confucians is that the former are more likely to favor political and civil rights in cases of conflict with economic rights...
...In that sense, Confucianism is put forward as a philosophy with universal validity, similar to liberalism and Christianity...
...Unlike with Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, there has never been an organized Confucian resistance to economic modernization, and such values as respect for education and concern for future generations may have contributed to economic growth...
...The Socratic model still informs the educational system in Western countries, where students are taught the importance of developing a critical perspective and seeking the truth without worrying about social harmony...
...For Confucians, the latter society is far preferable...
...when knowledge is extended, the will is sincere...
...they are meant to serve only the community of voters...
...Criticism will be most effective, in the sense that it leads to improvement, if it’s founded on affective ties...
...it can be used to promote those values...
...The increased focus on the public’s priorities, according to Wang, is partly explained by increased opportunities for citizens to influence policy formation by such means as the Internet and the mass media (“Changing Models of China’s Policy Agenda Setting,” Modern China [34:1 2008...
...These political and academic developments are supported by economic factors...
...At a recent conference on the “China model,” an influential Western journalist joked, “Give us time, we’ve only had a few months of humiliation...
...The Olympics highlighted Confucian themes, quoting the Analects of Confucius at the opening ceremony, and downplayed any references to China’s experiment with communism...
...Yes, coverage of this sort can seem propagandistic in nature, as when it shows President Hu Jintao singing along with disabled children (though I was watching television with elderly Chinese relatives who were visibly moved by what they saw...
...Theorists of international relations look to early Confucian thinkers for foreign policy insights...
...Even more important, which interpretation of Confucianism ought to be revived...
...Legal theorists search for less adversarial modes of conflict resolution grounded in traditional practices...
...In Chinese, for example, good friends and fellow alumni will refer to each other as younger or older siblings, graduate supervisors will refer to students as younger siblings, and (in the best cases) employers and employees will use family-like language...
...A regime that secures the interests of the current generation but neglects those of its descendants and ancestors would be unjust from the perspective of left Confucians...
...Independent Confucian academies, often located far from the country’s capital so as not to be subject to political control, trained scholars in the art of criticism...
...One condition is that Western societies undergo a prolonged crisis of confidence...
...The critical perspective also informs Confucianism...
...Today, new leftists such as Gan Yang are calling for the creation of a “Confucian socialist republic,” and scholars like Jiang Qing openly acknowledge that their interpretation of the tradition closely parallels socialist ideals—not the “actually existing socialism” in China today, but the ideals defended by Karl Marx and others...
...Elderly cadres, still influenced by Maoist antipathy to tradition, condemn efforts to promote ideologies outside a rigid Marxist framework...
...And it’s particularly important for “winners” to act in civilized ways, to show modesty and courtesy in rituals designed to civilize human desires...
...Left Confucians favor more space for an independent media with the power to tell the truth about social problems and blame the government when it’s at fault...
Vol. 57 • January 2010 • No. 1
