Doh C. Shin: East Asian Philosophy on Good Government: Confucian Meritocracy as Ideal and Practice

Confucius and his followers advocated meritocratic government by virtuous and able leaders as the most preferred of various governmental systems more than 100 years before Plato did in the West. What constitutes the Confucian model of meritocracy? Does this legacy of Confucian meritocracy still prevail as the proper norms or principles of achieving good government throughout Confucian Asia? If it does, how does it affect the process of democratization in East Asia? We will explore these and other questions concerning the ideal and practice of Confucian meritocracy with the latest, third wave of the Asian Barometer surveys conducted in Confucian East Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam.