Abstract
Purpose Outside the US and Europe, to establish a good government requires more than Western-style democracy. Adopting universal suffrage fully from the Western model is no longer a panacea to reach the ultimate goal of good governance in the East, i.e., to keep promoting socio-economic renovation can be noted as a prerequisite to have further meaningful political advancement in an Asian polity. The purpose of this paper is to explain how to establish a good but authoritarian government in the East. Design/methodology/approach Given the good of comparative historical analysis, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore and Deng Xiaoping in China are selected as both cases for “method of agreement.” Further including “argument based on the contrary” to form a context for macro-historical analysis, this paper outlines two characteristics of the duo’s authoritarian leadership, namely, Ideologies and Policy-making; and Political Modernization, and hence provides a more balanced reevaluation of their governance. Findings Apart from noting how these two Asian giants more or less contributed to their good but authoritarian governments for long in the twentieth century, such a word of authoritarianism to the duo was quite positive to help legitimize their governance, which was far different from many negative views of the Western world. Originality/value As theories put forward by Western academics could not entirely justify modernization among Asian societies in the twentieth century, this paper attempts to answer one question: Does the meaning of authoritarianism remain unchanged in the discourse of the East and the West?
Highlights
From the twentieth century, Asians have increasingly noted that a good government should be better established based on Western-style democracy
As most theories from the Western academic circle cannot wholly justify and/or explain distinctive modernization models initiated by leaders among Asian states after the Second World War, the author attempts to answer one question: Does the meaning of authoritarianism remain unchanged in the discourse of the East and the West? Concerning Lee Kuan Yew’s Singapore and Deng Xiaoping’s China, their views on this political term were far different from those in the Western world
Its semantic extension can be further likened to a panacea; such a word is inclusive of some other Eurocentric universal values, and it eventually helps legitimize a specific leader in governance
Summary
Asians have increasingly noted that a good government should be better established based on Western-style democracy. Since the duo have become historical figures from one to another, it is timely to reascertain their achievements, i.e., the room of establishing a good government under authoritarian leadership in the East, but not just focusing on their controversies and errors as overemphasized in the past This is the second reason to keep motivating me in conducting comparative historical analysis in order to illustrate how and why these two political strongmen and their corresponding historical contexts, as well as their consequent decisions that manifested such a political wisdom of their authoritarian governance, were “politically-incorrect” as usually judged in the Western world. 33-40) as the research methodology, i.e., to include “method of agreement” for direct comparison of both cases (Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore and Deng Xiaoping in China) in addition to argumentum a contrario (“argument based on the contrary”) for macro-historical analysis, the author picks art of authoritarian governance as the central issue and its related two key issues for comparison: Ideologies and Policy-making; and Political Modernization, for the purpose of helping secure power of both authoritarian leaders (Figure 1). By the end of this paper, the author hopes to explore if there is room to practically establish a good but authoritarian government in the East
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