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Meritocratic Democracy puts into dialogue contemporary works in Western democratic theory and Confucian political theory to examine the effectiveness of democracy as a decision-making system, the role of political leaders and political parties in real-world democracies. The result is a unique cross-cultural theory of democracy, meritocratic democracy, which combines democratic principles with a system of 'partisan juries' at the party level to enhance the quality of political leaders in democracy. Ultimately, this book shows that cross-cultural dialogue is imperative to generate innovative solutions to pressing political issues and foster reciprocal corrections."Can democratic mechanisms produce good quality political leaders? Inspired by Confucian political theorizing, Elena Ziliotti answers with a resounding "yes." This brilliant book develops a highly original solution to an ancient problem that is both politically realistic and morally desirable. It is a master class in comparative political theorizing." -- Daniel A. Bell, University of Hong Kong
"Meritocratic Democracy responds to a number of key issues of our time, including the 'crisis' of democracy, widespread concern with the quality of political leadership, and the value of an enlarged canon of political theory that includes classical and contemporary Confucian sources alongside those from the Western democratic tradition. On the one hand, it carefully rebuts normative and empirical arguments for the superiority of meritocratic over democratic systems of government. On the other, it draws on arguments for meritocracy to make a case for the moral pre-selection of potential leaders in democratic systems. In short, this is one of those rare and exciting books that breaks new ground with regard to both the content and method of contemporary political theory." -- Paul Patton, Wuhan University
(Excerpt from amazon.com)
