2024/04/14 by Zhichao Tong · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #Appeal #China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance #Chinese history and philosophy #Deference #Democracy #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Harmony (color) #Institution #Law #Liberal democracy #Meritocracy #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Social science #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/00323217241245347
published in Political Studies 73(1), 370-390 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2024/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Nearly all debates within contemporary Confucian political theory regarding the full or partial adoption of democracy have understood democracy as electoral representative democracy. Almost no attention has then been paid to how Confucian democracy or Confucian meritocracy would relate to randomly selected deliberative bodies increasingly considered by democratic theorists amid an ongoing reconceptualization of democracy. In this article, I explore such a relationship by presenting a Confucian case for empowered mini-publics. My central claim is that the adoption of this institution can be interpreted in Confucian terms and embraced by Confucian democrats as well as Confucian meritocrats, on the basis of several key Confucian values which they have already employed in defending their respective political proposals. By making this claim, I also demonstrate that one of central institutional innovations originally proposed to alleviate ills facing Western liberal democracies has a broader application and appeal than it has been assumed.