ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the theoretical underpinnings of specific debate, and assesses the claims with empirical evidence available from public opinion surveys. It analyses the Asian Values thesis from three alternative theoretical perspectives, each of which offers a different linkage between Confucianism and democratic politics. Many scholars and political leaders subscribe to the incompatibility thesis. Confucianism deems virtue to be far more important than formal political institutions in governance, stressing the need for moral leadership over institutional safeguards against official behavior. Besides the domain of political accountability, Confucianism and democracy are also deemed similar to each other in their views of equality. The political legacies are paternalism and elitism, which characterizes political Confucianism as the government of paternalistic meritocracy. Historically Confucian East Asia today is no longer a single cultural zone in regard to the mass public's commitment to the legacies of Confucian government.
