Editing Meritocracy (section)

=== Compatibility with liberalism and democracy ===
Another key question is whether Confucian political thought is compatible with liberalism. Tongdong Bai, for instance, argues that while Confucian political thought departs from the "one person, one vote" model, it can conserve many of the essential characteristics of liberalism, such as freedom of speech and individual rights.<ref name="Bai" />{{rp|97–110}} In fact, both Daniel Bell and Tongdong Bai hold that Confucian political meritocracy can tackle challenges that liberalism wants to tackle, but cannot by itself. At the cultural level, for instance, Confucianism, its institutions, and its rituals offer bulwarks against atomization and individualism. At the political level, the non-democratic side of political meritocracy is—for Bell and Bai—more efficient at addressing long-term questions such as climate change, in part because the meritocrats do not have to worry about the whims of public opinion.<ref name="Daniel A. Bell 2016" />{{rp|14–63}}

Joseph Chan defends the compatibility of Confucianism with both liberalism and democracy. In his book ''Confucian Perfectionism'', he argues that Confucians can embrace both democracy and liberalism on instrumental grounds; that is, while liberal democracy may not be valuable for its own sake, its institutions remains valuable—particularly when combined with a broadly Confucian culture—to serve Confucian ends and inculcate Confucian virtues.<ref>Joseph Chan, ''Confucian Perfectionism: A Political Philosophy For Modern Times'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013).</ref>