21세기 민주주의와 예악질서의 재음미

‘Future of Democracy’ and Confucian Ideology

For the past 250 years, liberal democracy has been the ‘ideology of hope’ for all suppressed people of the world who yearn for political protection of individual human rights and constitutional guarantee of equal political participation to free themselves from tyrannical rulers. The ideology of liberal democracy has become a universal political belief and electoral democracy is now regarded as a bench-mark of a politically developed nation. Francis Fukuyama even declared that human history is destined to take the inevitable march toward electoral democracy. Such conventional wisdom is challenged by some Islamic nations and most importantly by the Chinese leadership. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defies universality of the pluralistic electoral democracy and is consolidating one-party model to run the largest republic in the world. The CCP is confident of meeting ever-growing popular demand for amenity in the 21st century political environment with one-party system of meritocracy. They think that carefully chosen elite members of the party can perform sophisticated governing roles to satisfy popular demands. They argue that multi-party elections are not the only source of political legitimacy. They believe that effective adaptability of the ruling party to the popular demands ensures legitimacy of the government. Not surprisingly their arguments reflect the core ideas of the age-old traditional Confucian political theory which justifies meritocracy based on the philosophy of the Heavenly Order. One who has ability to play the role should be allowed to take the job. In this essay, the CCP’s assertion on the ‘post-democratic future’ will be compared with the core concepts of the Confucian political theory.