A Comparison of the Legitimacy of Power Between Confucianist and Legalist Philosophies
Author(s)
Ma, Li
Abstract
The concept of legitimacy is at the heart of the theory of power. It is essential to understand how a political power is built and how obedience is obtained among the population. We examine here the legitimacy of power for two of the most important political philosophies of classical China: Confucianism and Legalism. We show how a specific group of the population, the scholar-officials, play a specialized role in the two systems, acting as a legitimization group. We further compare rites and laws as a way to obtain social order, and morality vs. punishments as a way to obtain obedience. We conclude that the Confucianist system is less fragile than the Legalist, but also more oppressive, since it allows fewer personal choices to individuals.
