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Democracy Begins at the Grass Roots
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13258 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1987 |
2,129 Words |
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Choi Sung-Il
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Recent developments in South Korea have people buzzing over the immediate prospects for the return of democracy. As Chun Doo-Hwan's dictatorship finally relented to street protests led by students and joined by the middle class, people of varying shades of political conviction have turned optimistic about people power and the imminent arrival of democracy.
There are, however, skeptics who remain unconvinced of the cultural suitability of the Korean people for democracy. In particular, some feel troubled by certain elements of Confucianism such as authority, conformity, and hierarchy, which they argue impede compromise and the development of consensus - without which democracy can hardly evolve, let alone function.
If optimists understand democracy primarily in institutional terms, that is, presidential rule with direct elections, skeptics conceive of it mainly as a political cultural process involving compromise and consensus-building. In this regard, skepticism is derived from a limited understanding of Confucianism. Discussion of the nature of democracy and Confucianism as they relate to the prerequisites of democracy is helpful.
A set of institutions by itself does not make a democracy viable any more than a congeries of cultural traits does. Democracy is an institutional and cultural process in which all contestants for power and valued resources in society compete and cooperate with one another within the rubric of the rule of law and according to the democratic rules of the game.
Let us review the discussion of the nature of democracy and its prerequisites that runs through the Western philosophical tradition and then evaluate the compatibility between the Western conception of democracy and Confucianism.
The Virtue Of The Median
Aristotle was the first great Western philosopher of democracy. He defined democracy as the ideal polity, in which the middle class prevails as the predominant group. The middle class epitomizes the Aristotelian virtue of the median because it is neither as hungry as the poor nor as greedy as the rich. In other words, the middle class, according to Aristotle, is more likely than other socioeconomic groups to possess the necessary democratic attributes of moderation, tolerance, and patience.
A number of philosophers since Aristotle argued in a similar vein. For instance, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Alexis de Tocqueville defined deliberation by the general public as the nexus of democracy. Naturally, the deliberative capacity is preconditioned by a moderate and patient disposition.
John Dewey, the precursor of pragmatism, spoke of democracy in a strikingly similar tone. Using the nature of scientific enterprise as the point of reference, Dewey stressed the importance of an incrementalist and trial-and-error approach and temperament as the sine qua non of democracy. Dewey thus echoed the Aristotelian notion of the democratic temperament and personality defined as moderation and patience. Imbedded in Dewey's analogy between science and democracy is the suggestion of the reformist and gradual nature of change in a democratic
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