The immediate concern of this thesis is to understand the role played by
Confucianism in the capitalist development of the East Asian NISs. In pursuit of this
aim, it focuses on the relationship between Confucian political philosophy and state
intervention in economic activities, on Confucian family practice and its links to
modem organisations, on the Confucian emphasis on frugality and hard work and the
work ethic, and on the Confucian stress on knowledge and high level modem
education. It contends that through these mechanisms contemporary Confucian
values have helped to facilitate the development of capitalist order and economic
growth in the East Asian NISs.
The thesis also explores the Confucian tradition and its modern transformations. It
traces the historical evolution of Confucianism and shows how, more recently, it has
changed in response to the challenge of capitalist development. It further identifies
the contemporary forms of Confucian values and illustrates their variations across
different East Asian societies. This line of enquiry is pursued empirically through an
analysis of the development of Confucian themes in one of the principal spaces for
public commentary and debate on economic, social and political issues - the popular
press. The present analysis is one of the first to investigate the practical deployment
of Confucian themes in everyday public discourse.
The thesis approaches the questions in a Weberian tradition, which takes culture as
an explanatory variable in social change, and recognises the influence of socioeconomic
conditions on cultural change at the same time. It believes that change is
an integrated process which involves all sectors of society. During this process
cultural, social, political and economic forces compete and interact with each other
within the specific contexts that conditioned the change. The capitalist development in the East Asian NISs is a process which involves the
interaction between Confucianism and capitalism. Capitalism failed to develop in the
Far East when it first emerged, due to the inhibitions of traditional Confucianism.
But after it had triumphed in the West and been introduced to these societies by the
colonisers, Confucianism could no longer resist the force of capitalist modernity, it
had no choice but to adapt to the new situations. As a result, Confucian culture
absorbed the idea of profit seeking, competition and rationalisation of economic
activity, but retained its emphasis on collectiveness, family, and harmony. Combined
with the continuing Confucian emphasis on education, merit, hard work, discipline
and high achievement motivation, these values form a potent underpinning for
economic growth. And this force has given rise to a special kind of capitalism in the
East Asian NISs