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The Princeton-China Series
Against Political Equality: The Confucian Case
How a hybrid Confucian-engendered form of governance might solve today's political problems
What might a viable political alternative to liberal democracy look like? In Against Political Equality, Tongdong Bai offers a possibility inspired by Confucian ideas.
Bai argues that domestic governance influenced by Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual capabilities of caring for the people. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime--made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic characteristics combined with democratic elements and a quasi-liberal system of laws and rights--recognizes that egalitarian qualities sometimes conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. Bai applies his views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and on the principle of international interventions whereby humane responsibilities override sovereignty.
Exploring the deficiencies posed by many liberal democracies, Against Political Equality presents a novel Confucian-engendered alternative for solving today's political problems.
What might a viable political alternative to liberal democracy look like? In Against Political Equality, Tongdong Bai offers a possibility inspired by Confucian ideas.
Bai argues that domestic governance influenced by Confucianism can embrace the liberal aspects of democracy along with the democratic ideas of equal opportunities and governmental accountability to the people. But Confucianism would give more political decision-making power to those with the moral, practical, and intellectual capabilities of caring for the people. While most democratic thinkers still focus on strengthening equality to cure the ills of democracy, the proposed hybrid regime--made up of Confucian-inspired meritocratic characteristics combined with democratic elements and a quasi-liberal system of laws and rights--recognizes that egalitarian qualities sometimes conflict with good governance and the protection of liberties, and defends liberal aspects by restricting democratic ones. Bai applies his views to the international realm by supporting a hierarchical order based on how humane each state is toward its own and other peoples, and on the principle of international interventions whereby humane responsibilities override sovereignty.
Exploring the deficiencies posed by many liberal democracies, Against Political Equality presents a novel Confucian-engendered alternative for solving today's political problems.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published December 24, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 21, 2020
This is a sprawling, provocative book, a worthy addition to the large (and ever-increasing) literature out there on possible Confucian (or, in some ways, just simply and more accurately the Chinese) alternative of Western political forms: liberal equality, representative democracy, civil rights, and more. The defenders of Confucian alternatives--or sometimes just supplements or correctives--to these mostly Western forms which dominate the modern, industrialized, and (partly) democratized world range from those focusing on purely personal, civic matters (like the way secular liberal societies often fail to constrain rampant individualism, and how contemporary Confucian social orders wouldn't have the same flaws), to those focusing on institutional, governmental matters (like the creation of an elite, merit-based "house of scholars," to balance out the popular demands represented in normal democratic legislatures). Bai, however, does both, in great detail. I am not persuaded by many of his arguments--not, I think, because I reject Confucian supplements or alternatives to our system (I am pretty communitarian, after all!), but most because his framing his arguments presumes an easy modernity to Confucianism, a seamlessness with which it could presumably be inserted in modern arguments about government. I think his justification for this seamlessness between today's civic spaces and those that existed over 2500 years ago in China is weak, and I think his failure to address just how urban modernity differs from the world of Confucian ritual ordering doesn't help his otherwise often fascinating and insightful claims. Anyway, more here.
May 5, 2021
I read this for a Justice and International Affairs philosophy course. While it was fascinating to learn about China and Confucianism, and I loved the idea of compassion as a binding principle for a society, I could not ultimately agree with where the author was taking his case (in a hierarchical direction). I would need to read over the whole book to understand exactly what that case was beyond the chapters we read for class, and to put together my argument against it, though. I would actually like to spend more time with this book and read the whole thing (maybe over the summer, or after I get my degrees).
Probably worth a read for people interested in culture, political science, history, philosophy, etc.
Probably worth a read for people interested in culture, political science, history, philosophy, etc.
March 23, 2026
As someone already convinced of both the continued relevance of Confucianism as an idea, philosophy and political tool and one convinced that Fukuyama was a fool when he declared the end of history, Tongdon Bai could only lose me and he did.
I wasn't looking to be sold on this being the solution or anything like that but I just could not get pulled in; perhaps what might have sold it better for me was a vision what a state/society guided by these ideas would could look like and then to break it down. Now the first half of the book is all about on the hand justifying that Confucianism is a legitimate idea still worthy of contemplation and secondly that the question whether it can still be valid for modernity is a moot question as China has been modern for over 2000 years ushered into it by Confucian ideas. To Tongdon Bai, modernity is a question of meritocracy, rule based law, standardized bureaucracy and an elite culture promoting acquirement of skill/ expertise rather then blood relations. This highlights the core purpose of the book namely to drag Confucianism out of either history studies and or sinology which I can understand but that wasn't why I came to the party.
Per chapter concepts of liberal democracy such as one man one vote concepts are analysed and considered from the points of view of Confucian and Mencius and then reconsidered in his own framework of the expanded care/ reinvisioned ideas of what a Confucianism rule ought to be. However although he both denounces the twisting of illiberal democracies and the abject failure of totalitarian autocracy neither do more lenient autocracy get a free pass nor liberal democracies. It is clear that he aims for something new to be brought fort for the changing times and both the expansion of Confucianist care as well as the idea of humanness are emphasized.
So Altough there is a definite point to be made and I have used the Mencius quip on "not knowing of a king overthrown but a tyrant facing justice" on the legitimacy of resisting bad rule myself many times.....but Taiwain ought to be part of China; I get it how could he say anything else right if he wanted to keep a career in China? the reasoning is as much a veneer of legitimacy as has been humanitarian interventions have been orchestrated by the USA; namely that a full independent Taiwan would be a pawn of Japan and the USA which would cause harm to the Chinese nation, working against them thus making it an ethical unacceptable outcome. I don't want to make this point of the whole book or reduce my review of it to it; but then again I could not help but shake my head that for all the talk he has done that no nation on earth conforms to his state ideal, he does side with China when it comes to Taiwan. I am reminded of Hegel who at the end of his grand idealistic vision came to the logical conclusion that German was the ideal language for philosophy and the Junker Prussian state the ideal statehood as if that also was so evident from the arguments made.
I still do believe in the legitimacy of using Mencius as a political societal engineering thinker and I think there are interesting questions made in this book, but one has to wonder what it would all amount too and on that front Tongdong Bai is either deliberately vague or shows glimpse of it and I am not on board for what they reveal.
I wasn't looking to be sold on this being the solution or anything like that but I just could not get pulled in; perhaps what might have sold it better for me was a vision what a state/society guided by these ideas would could look like and then to break it down. Now the first half of the book is all about on the hand justifying that Confucianism is a legitimate idea still worthy of contemplation and secondly that the question whether it can still be valid for modernity is a moot question as China has been modern for over 2000 years ushered into it by Confucian ideas. To Tongdon Bai, modernity is a question of meritocracy, rule based law, standardized bureaucracy and an elite culture promoting acquirement of skill/ expertise rather then blood relations. This highlights the core purpose of the book namely to drag Confucianism out of either history studies and or sinology which I can understand but that wasn't why I came to the party.
Per chapter concepts of liberal democracy such as one man one vote concepts are analysed and considered from the points of view of Confucian and Mencius and then reconsidered in his own framework of the expanded care/ reinvisioned ideas of what a Confucianism rule ought to be. However although he both denounces the twisting of illiberal democracies and the abject failure of totalitarian autocracy neither do more lenient autocracy get a free pass nor liberal democracies. It is clear that he aims for something new to be brought fort for the changing times and both the expansion of Confucianist care as well as the idea of humanness are emphasized.
So Altough there is a definite point to be made and I have used the Mencius quip on "not knowing of a king overthrown but a tyrant facing justice" on the legitimacy of resisting bad rule myself many times.....but Taiwain ought to be part of China; I get it how could he say anything else right if he wanted to keep a career in China? the reasoning is as much a veneer of legitimacy as has been humanitarian interventions have been orchestrated by the USA; namely that a full independent Taiwan would be a pawn of Japan and the USA which would cause harm to the Chinese nation, working against them thus making it an ethical unacceptable outcome. I don't want to make this point of the whole book or reduce my review of it to it; but then again I could not help but shake my head that for all the talk he has done that no nation on earth conforms to his state ideal, he does side with China when it comes to Taiwan. I am reminded of Hegel who at the end of his grand idealistic vision came to the logical conclusion that German was the ideal language for philosophy and the Junker Prussian state the ideal statehood as if that also was so evident from the arguments made.
I still do believe in the legitimacy of using Mencius as a political societal engineering thinker and I think there are interesting questions made in this book, but one has to wonder what it would all amount too and on that front Tongdong Bai is either deliberately vague or shows glimpse of it and I am not on board for what they reveal.
November 12, 2021
This was beautifully written. Whether you have a good grasp of political philosophy, or just a basic understanding, the depth of thought in this work is truly refreshing.
I never considered any political thought other than Western, which although is natural, is so restricting as there is a whole world with other ideas out there! Bai writes in defence of the ideal of the meritocracy, rather than democracy. Although the opportunity should be open for all, the actual ability to make political decisions should be left to those skilled to do so. These unelected elites still work for the good of the people, and Bai argues that a hybrid regime with some form of voting would enable the system to adopt some of the positive aspects of democracy.
What I love is that Bai's use of Confucian thought as the basis of political philosophy is richly driven by values. Rather than the West in which the individual is the highest value, family, compassion and duty are of high regard! When Bai formulates a Confucian basis of rights, they are all to do with duty.
Now I'm not suggesting we start a Confucian political party, but I am so excited with what I've learnt. It's truly helped me to view the political landscape in a whole new and fresh way.
I never considered any political thought other than Western, which although is natural, is so restricting as there is a whole world with other ideas out there! Bai writes in defence of the ideal of the meritocracy, rather than democracy. Although the opportunity should be open for all, the actual ability to make political decisions should be left to those skilled to do so. These unelected elites still work for the good of the people, and Bai argues that a hybrid regime with some form of voting would enable the system to adopt some of the positive aspects of democracy.
What I love is that Bai's use of Confucian thought as the basis of political philosophy is richly driven by values. Rather than the West in which the individual is the highest value, family, compassion and duty are of high regard! When Bai formulates a Confucian basis of rights, they are all to do with duty.
Now I'm not suggesting we start a Confucian political party, but I am so excited with what I've learnt. It's truly helped me to view the political landscape in a whole new and fresh way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews