Confucian Virtues for Democratic Leadership

Modern representative democracy is an uneasy compromise between the respect for popular sovereignty and the need for effective governance. This compromise resulted in a long-standing tension between the search for capable leadership and the democratic will of the people. While contemporary works mostly focus on the institutional solution, this article traces how a complex and harsh political reality ensures the insufficiency of institutions alone to resolve the tension. What democratic leadership needs is proper political virtues that can balance the concerns from both ends. Despite Confucianism’s reputation of emphasizing political hierarchy and obedience, this article argues that once the regime type is transited from monarchy to democracy, the Confucian political virtue of faithfulness (zhong 忠) is uniquely suitable to support democratic norms necessary for resolving the tension between strong political leadership and democratic will of the people in the complex and difficult political reality of the modern world.