ABSTRACT
According to Pye (1985), the paternalistic nature of Asian political culture creates obstacles for political critics, labor agitators, student rebels, environmental activists, and other challengers to the status quo. This is because Asian distaste for open criticism of authority, the fear of upsetting the unity of the community, and the knowledge that any violation of the community’s rules of propriety will lead to ostracism all combine to limit the appeal of Western democracy and social movements. Due to the Confucian emphasis on harmony and the demand for consensus, adversarial relationships are muted, and critics are taught the benefits of conformity. Deyo (1989) also points out that labor peace in the Asian NIEs is generally attributed to the political 211culture, which stresses “hierarchy, cooperation, a preference for mediation over confrontation, industriousness, deference to elders, and most important, the subordination of individual to family, group, and state.”
