ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes hegemonic transition and global governance from the perspectives of cultures and civilizations by illustrating the contours of a group of discourses articulated by the political elite from East Asia, a transnational space of ideas and philosophies gearing up to recover its historical position as the center of power and prosperity. It aims to illustrate one of the important discursive trends in East Asia and its potentials as a global discourse. The chapter offers a detailed discussion of how the harmonist discourses have been applied to the political and social realities of East Asian states. Speaking in relative terms, the Western discourses of liberal democracy and neo-liberal economics presuppose the universality of these values and institutions, whereas harmonism embodies ideological pluralism. Agonistic pluralism offers a theoretical foundation for the notion of radical democracy, based on difference and plurality as opposed to rationalism's foundational ideas of consensus and universality.
