Toward Confucian-Inspired Democratic Meritocracy: A Response to Yong Huang, Chenyang Li, and Binfan Wang

Here, Bell expresses his gratitude for the three detailed and informative critiques of his book The China Model. These critiques are themselves models of Confucian civility, even as they express sharp areas of disagreement. There does seem to be agreement that the ideal of a Confucian-inspired democratic meritocracy is a worthwhile political project, particularly in the Chinese political context, but Yong Huang, Chenyang Li, and Binfan Wang question his book's arguments in defense of this ideal. There are three kinds of critiques: (1) the need to take Confucianism more seriously, (2) the need to take democracy more seriously, and (3) the need to take political meritocracy more seriously. China's political challenge over the next few decades will be to build a less repressive political system on a foundation of vertical democratic meritocracy. Confucianism can help with this task, but it is only part of the solution.