Beyond Liberal Democracy This page intentionally left blank Beyond Liberal Democracy Political Thinking for an East Asian Context Daniel A. Bell PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS princeton and oxford Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to Permissions, Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bell, Daniel (Daniel A.) Beyond liberal democracy : political thinking for an East Asian context / Daniel A. Bell. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12307-3 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12307-1 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12308-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12308-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Democracy—East Asia. 2. Human rights—East Asia. 3. Capitalism— East Asia. 4. East Asia—Politics and government. I. Title. JQ1499.A91B45 2006 321.8095—dc22 2006002730 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ∞ pup.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America In memory of Don Bell Father and writer This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments xi 1. Introduction: One Size Doesn’t Fit All 1 The Uniquely Parochial Development of Liberal Democracy 4 Human Rights for an East Asian Context 9 Democracy for an East Asian Context 11 Capitalism for an East Asian Context 14 A Note on the Culturally Sensitive Approach to Political Theorizing 17 Part One Human Rights for an East Asian Context 2. Just War and Confucianism: Implications for the Contemporary World 23 The Ideal World versus the Nonideal World 24 General Confucian Principles of Good Government 31 Mencius on Just and Unjust War 35 Implications for Contemporary Societies 40 3. Human Rights and “Values in Asia”: Reflections on East-West Dialogues 52 Trade-offs and Priorities 55 Asian Justifications for Human Rights 62 Values in Asia versus Western Liberalism: Justifiable Moral Differences? 72 Cross-Cultural Dialogues on Human Rights: What Is the Point? 78 4. The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights NGOs: Reflections on Dialogues between Practitioners and Theorists 84 The Challenge of Cultural Conflict 87 The Challenge of Dealing with Global Poverty 92 The Challenge of Dealing with States That Restrict the Activities of INGOs 103 viii CONTENTS The Challenge of Fund-Raising 107 Implications for INGOs in East Asia 111 Part Two Democracy for an East Asian Context 5. What’s Wrong with Active Citizenship? A Comparison of Physical Education in Ancient Greece and Ancient China 121 Two Ancient Civilizations 123 Why Compare State-Sponsored Physical Education in the Two Ancient Civilizations? 132 Political Competition and Sports Competition 134 Commercial Societies, Leisure Time, and the Pursuit of Physical Excellence 143 Implications for Contemporary East Asian Societies 146 6. Taking Elitism Seriously: Democracy with Confucian Characteristics 152 Political Elitism and Democracy: Two Important Values 153 Institutionalizing Confucian Democracy 162 7. Is Democracy the “Least Bad” System for Minority Groups? 180 Some Definitions 185 Democracy and Nation Building 190 Implications for Outside Prodemocracy Forces 202 8. Democratic Education in a Multicultural Context: Lessons from Singapore 206 Singapore’s Political History 207 Racism in the Classroom? 211 Inclusive Multiculturalism 215 Beyond Singapore? 218 Part Three Capitalism for an East Asian Context 9. Culture and Egalitarian Development: Confucian Constraints on Property Rights 231 On the Selection of Feasible and Desirable Confucian Values for Modern Societies 234 The Overriding Value of Material Welfare 237 CONTENTS ix The Value of Care for Needy Family Members 243 Exporting Confucianism? 251 10. East Asian Capitalism for an Age of Globalization 255 East Asian Capitalism and Economic Productivity 259 East Asian Capitalism and Social Welfare 271 Implications for Public Policy 278 11. Justice for Migrant Workers? The Case of Migrant Domestic Workers in East Asia 281 The Political Concerns of Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong and Singapore 283 Should Foreign Domestic Workers Be Given Equal Rights? 290 The Role of Culture 305 Migrant Domestic Workers in Mainland China 313 12. Responses to Critics: The Real and the Ideal 323 Selected Bibliography 343 Index 369 This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book was written over a stretch of two years. The first year was my sabbatical year at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Be- havioral Sciences (CASBS). Pace the occasional mountain lion attack, it was an ideal setting for thinking and writing. I am grateful for the ad- ministrative support and funding provided by CASBS and, above all, for the many friendships that developed over the course of the year. I would also like to thank the City University of Hong Kong, which cofunded my sabbatical. I owe special thanks to then head of department Ian Holliday and then Dean Matthew Chen for facilitating this arrangement. The second year was spent at Tsinghua University (Beijing). I am par- ticularly grateful to Professor Wan Junren for his strong support and warm welcome. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the depart- ment of philosophy for conversations and friendship that have made my stay in Beijing both enjoyable and stimulating. I have received numerous comments on earlier drafts of the book. I am most grateful to the two readers for Princeton University Press— Joseph Chan and one anonymous referee—for reports that have helped me sharpen the argument. I would also like the following individuals for valuable comments on individual chapters: Sia Ackermark, Peter Baehr, Bai Tongdong, Charles Blattberg, Leah Briones, Joe Carens, Ci Jiwei, Jean-Marc Coicaud, John Delury, Avner de-Shalit, Paul Dumouchel, Chris Eisgruber, Fan Ruiping, Steve Geisz, Jonas Grimheden, Hahm Chaibong, Hahm Chaihark, He Baogang, Ian Holliday, Philip Ivanhoe, Leigh Kathryn Jenko, Will Kymlicka, Theresa Lee, Linda Li, Li Qiang, Liang Zhiping, Huichieh Loy, Roy Mill, Kathleen Much, Paik Wooyeal, Randy Peerenboom, Franklin Perkins, Elaine Scarry, Song Bing, Tan Sor- hoon, Michael Walzer, Ben Wong, and Chan-Liang Wu. I would also like to thank I-Chung Chen, Tom Chu, Mike Dowdle, Fan Ruiping, Russell Arben Fox, Krzysztof Gawlikowski, Tom Gold, He Baogang, Huang Ko-wu, Kanishka Jayasuriya, Will Kymlicka, Ethan Leib, Linda Li, Liu Wenjia, Jeff McMahan, Christopher McNally, Andrew Murphy, Antony Ou, Randy Peerenboom, Thomas Pogge, Edmund Ryden, Sing Ming, Frank Upham, T. Y. Wang, and Xiao Qiang for sending material that has been useful for my book. Let me also thank my research assistants at Stanford, Rakhi Patel and Zhang Chenchen; and in Beijing, Chang Huili, Li Wanquan, Tu Wenjuan, and Zhang Yanliang. Thanks also to Anita O’Brien for careful copy edit- ing. I have been learning Chinese for several years, and I would like to xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS thank my teachers. I owe special thanks to three graduate students in Beijing who have generously offered their time to help me improve my classical Chinese: Kong Xinfeng, Liu Wenjia, and Wu Yun. The transla- tions are my own, unless indicated otherwise, and I do not want to im- plicate my teachers if there are any mistakes! Over half of the book consists of new material. However, I have been thinking and writing about some of these topics for a long time, and the book draws on some previous work that has been substantially revised and updated. I wish to thank several publishers for permission to incor- porate previously published material: Chapter 4 draws on my essay (cowritten with Joseph H. Carens), “The Ethical Dilemmas of International Human Rights and Humanitar- ian NGOs: Reflections on a Dialogue between Practitioners and Theo- rists,” Human Rights Quarterly, May 2004; and on my introduction to Ethics in Action: The Ethical Challenges of International Human Rights NGOs, coedited with Jean-Marc Coicaud (New York: Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 2006). Chapter 5 draws on my essay (cowritten with Paik Wooyeal), “Citi- zenship and State-Sponsored Physical Education: Ancient Greece and Ancient China,” Review of Politics, May 2004. Chapter 7 draws on my contribution to Democratization and Identity: Regimes and Ethnicity in Southeast Asia, ed. Susan J. Henders (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004). Chapter 8 draws on my essay, “Teaching in a Multicultural Context: Lessons from Singapore,” Dissent, Spring 2000. Chapter 9 draws on my contribution to Confucianism for the Modern World, ed. Daniel A. Bell and Hahm Chaibong (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Chapter 11 draws on my contribution (cowritten with Nicola Piper) to Multiculturalism in Asia: Theoretical Perspectives, ed. Will Kymlicka and He Baogang (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). I am most grateful to my editor, Ian Malcolm, for his support and in- terest in the project; to Joe Carens, Paik Wooyeal, and Nicola Piper, who cowrote earlier versions of chapters 4, 5, and 11, respectively; to my dear friend Tatiana Sayig, who designed the cover; and to my wife Song Bing, our child Julien Song Bell, my mother, Anthony, Valérie, Oliver, grandmother, as well as family members in China, for emotional sup- port. I dedicate this book to my father, Don Bell, who left this world on March 8, 2003. If I like writing books, it’s because of him. Beyond Liberal Democracy This page intentionally left blank 1 Introduction: One Size Doesn’t Fit All In May 2002 the eminent American legal theorist Ronald Dworkin toured several Chinese universities and delivered lectures on human rights. The Chinese translation of his renowned book Taking Rights Se- riously had been topping the best-seller lists for several weeks and his public lectures drew literally thousands of people. At the time, Professor Dworkin’s tour was compared to the visits to China eight decades ago by John Dewey and Bertrand Russell.