Towards Confucian Republicanism: Democracy as Virtue Politics [Hardcover]

InTowards Confucian Republicanism, Elton Chan develops a theoretical framework of Confucianism for the twenty-first century. He argues that liberal Confucians must take seriously the internal authoritarian leanings of Confucianism--and then resist them. He shows that Confucians are keen on concentrating power in the hands of the virtuous not merely for promoting order and material livelihood, but also for general moral cultivation. Yet this political and moral hierarchy is self-defeating. To counter the authoritarian turn in Confucian scholarship, Chan articulates a hybrid political order that brings together Confucianism and republican democracy, making the case that Confucianism stands a much higher chance of achieving good governance and collective virtuous cultivation when merged with republicanism.Over the last century, Confucianism has been searching for a place in the modern political world. This ancient tradition was once the philosophical cornerstone upon which powerful political orders were built, but the collapse of monarchies in the twentieth century has removed Confucianism from its institutional manifestations. And despite the liberal turn of Confucianism in the 1950s that sought to adopt liberal democracy as the tradition's political future, there appears to be an increasing revival of the authoritarian strands of thought among Confucian scholarship.InTowards Confucian Republicanism, Elton Chan develops a theoretical framework of Confucianism for the twenty-first century. Chan argues that liberal Confucians must take seriously the internal authoritarian leanings of Confucianism--and then argue against such strands of the Confucian tradition. He shows that Confucians are keen on concentrating power in the hands of the virtuous not merely for promoting order and material livelihood, but also for general moral cultivation. Yet this use of political and moral hierarchy as institutional platforms for perfectionist development is self-defelsÓ