Political Liberalism, Confucianism, and the Future of Democracy in East Asia PDF
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Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations Zhuoyao Li Political Liberalism, Confucianism, and the Future of Democracy in East Asia Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations Volume 12 Series Editors David M. Rasmussen, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA Alessandro Ferrara, Dipartimento di Storia, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy Editorial Board Abdullah An-Na’im, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, Emory University, Atlanta, USA Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Robert Audi, O’Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor for Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA Samuel Freeman, Avalon Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA Jürgen Habermas, Professor Emeritus, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, Bayern, Germany Axel Honneth, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany and Columbia University, New York, USA, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Germany Erin Kelly, Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA Charles Larmore, W. Duncan MacMillan Family Professor in the Humanities, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA Frank Michelman, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Tong Shijun, Professor of Philosophy, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus, McGill University, Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, Princeton, NJ, USA The purpose of Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations is to publish high quality volumes that reflect original research pursued at the juncture of philosophy and politics. Over the past 20 years new important areas of inquiry at the crossroads of philosophy and politics have undergone impressive developments or have emerged anew. Among these, new approaches to human rights, transitional justice, religion and politics and especially the challenges of a post-secular society, global justice, public reason, global constitutionalism, multiple democracies, political liberalism and deliberative democracy can be included. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations addresses each and any of these interrelated yet distinct fields as valuable manuscripts and proposal become available, with the aim of both being the forum where single breakthrough studies in one specific subject can be published and at the same time the areas of overlap and the intersecting themes across the various areas can be composed in the coherent image of a highly dynamic disciplinary continent. Some of the studies published are bold theoretical explorations of one specific theme, and thus primarily addressed to specialists, whereas others are suitable for a broader readership and possibly for wide adoption in graduate courses. The series includes monographs focusing on a specific topic, as well as collections of articles covering a theme or collections of articles by one author. Contributions to this series come from scholars on every continent and from a variety of scholarly orientations. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13508 Zhuoyao Li Political Liberalism, Confucianism, and the Future of Democracy in East Asia Zhuoyao Li Queens, NY, USA ISSN 2352-8370 ISSN 2352-8389 (electronic) Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations ISBN 978-3-030-43115-0 ISBN 978-3-030-43116-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43116-7 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland For Anderson Acknowledgments This book is based on my doctoral dissertation, which was originally intended to be a thorough reexamination and defense of John Rawls’ politi- cal liberalism. Reading contemporary literature on comparative political theory, particularly those that try to bridge East Asian traditions with liberal democracy, made me realize that the value of political liberalism is more clearly tested and demonstrated by extending its scope to nonliberal and nondemocratic settings that are conventionally considered to be hostile to ideals and institutions associated with political liberalism. Like many before me, I focused on (classical) Confucianism as an example that possesses rich internal resources to accommodate and poses substantial challenges against the liberal and democratic tradition at the same time. The outcome is a study that aims to make the case for political liberalism both within and beyond its liberal, democratic, and western boundary. The central claim of the book is that political liberalism still represents one of the most promising theoretical frameworks to think about ideals and institutions central to liberal democ- racy and how a liberal and democratic future can be conceived in the region of East Asia. It is my hope that my arguments in this book strengthen the case for political liberalism and its future development, which can serve as some contributions to the fields of social and political philosophy as well as comparative political theory. In writing this book, I have incurred numerous debts. My fellow doctoral candidates and professors in the Department of Philosophy at Boston College have provided me with invaluable comments and suggestions. I would like to thank Robert Minto, Matt Ray, Paul Van Rooy, and Amelia Wirts and my dissertation board members, David Rasmussen, Alessandro Ferrara, Sungmoon Kim, and Vanessa Rumble. I am also grateful for con- versations with Jorge L. A. Garcia, Micah Lott, and Joseph Chan regarding key chapters of the book. Lastly, I would like to thank the publishers at vii viii Acknowledgments Springer, the book series editors, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Some chapters of the book were presented at several conferences and workshops. Chapter 4 was presented at the Long Island Philosophical Society 2019 Conference. Earlier versions of Chaps. 7 and 8 were presented at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Workshop at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Boston College, in 2016 and 2017. An earlier version of Chap. 8 was also presented at the workshop on Confucian political theory at Manchester Center for Political Theory (MANCEPT) in 2017. I would like to thank the participants of these conferences and work- shops for their engaging discussions and suggestions. A slightly different version of Chap. 3 was previously published as an open-a ccess article under the same title in Ethics & Global Politics 9, No. 1 (2016). A longer version of Chap. 7 was previously published under the title “The Discontents of Moderate Political Confucianism and the Future of Democracy in East Asia” in Philosophy East and West 68, No. 4 (October 2018), 1193–1218. I thank the University of Hawaii Press for permission to reprint the article here. Chapters 5 and 8 draw from my article previously published under the title “Political Confucianism and Multivariate Democracy in East Asia” in The Review of Politics 81, No. 3 (Summer 2019), 459–483. I thank Cambridge University Press for permission to reprint parts of the article in this book. Finally, I am grateful to my wife, Silvia, who has always offered her warm support and critical nudge that keep pushing me forward. I am also thankful to my son, Anderson, who was born during the writing of this book and to whom I dedicate this book. Contents 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 Political Liberalism and the Paradigm Shift of Political Philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 The Public Conception of Morality in Political Liberalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4 Against the Asymmetry Objection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 5 The Idea of Hyperpluralism and Pluralism in East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 6 Confucianism and Comprehensive Confucian Perfectionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 7 The Discontents of Moderate Political Confucianism . . . . . . . 117 8 Political Confucianism and Multivariate Democracy in East Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 9 Toward a Pluralistic Approach to Antiperfectionism . . . . . . . 157 10 Respect, Recognition, and Toleration: A Concentric Theory of Global Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Background and Objective After the debate between liberalism and communitarianism in the 1980s and 1990s, liberalism’s family quarrel takes center stage in recent literature on political theory. Representing two historically significant traditions, politi- cal liberalism and liberal perfectionism have become the most antagonistic pair in the liberal family.1 On the one hand, political liberalism refuses to ground liberalism on any particular conception of the good because people are deeply divided over ideals of human flourishing. On the other hand, lib- eral perfectionism regards liberalism and particular views of human flour- ishing as compatible. Both camps are inspired by concrete historical experiences and represent enduring intellectual traditions. Political liberal- ism, particularly the branch advocated by John Rawls, rests on Rawls’ observation of “reasonable pluralism,” which is inspired by the evolution of the social and historical conditions of modern democratic regimes that have their origins in “the Wars of Religion following the Reformation and the subsequent development of the principle of toleration, and in the growth of constitutional government and of large industrial market economies.”2 So the most sensible thing to do for political philosophy is to apply “the principle of toleration” to itself in order to arrive at a public conception of 1 For an anthology of works from both camps, see Perfectionism and Neutrality: Essays in Liberal Theory, eds. Steven Wall and George Klosko (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003). 2 John Rawls, “The Idea of an Overlapping Consensus,” Collected Papers, ed. Samuel Freeman (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 424. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 1 Z. Li, Political Liberalism, Confucianism, and the Future of Democracy in East Asia, Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations 12, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43116-7_1
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