Rule of Culture

<p>Culture has an abiding influence on the way countries and business corporations are governed. This book introduces the reader to the deep philosophies that drive corporations and governments in East Asia from China through Japan and South Korea to Singapore. With sparkling clarity and spiced with anecdotes and case studies it depicts how respect for cultures can lead to spectacular success or the lack of it to failure. Confucian practices such as <i>guanxi </i>in Chinese society the benevolent culture of <i>entity firms</i> in Japan and patriarchal <i>chaebols</i> in South Korea are analyzed with examples like Esquel Nissan and Samsung. A delightful chapter on Daoism shows how it drives Jack Ma’s Alibaba.com.</p><p>In the governance of nations the author reinforces Burke’s dictum that systems of government must be consonant with traditional cultures and he calls out misguided attempts by the West to foist liberal democracies on civilizations in the East where respect for authority and communitarian values come before individual interest. The author advances the novel concept of the <i>meritocratic democracy</i> in which leaders are chosen not by electoral popularity but by proven ability. In a thought-provoking concluding chapter he evaluates prospective constitutional changes in China that would enshrine meritocratic democracy as an alternative to liberal democracies that have turned dysfunctional in many Western nations.</p>