Revista de Ciências Políticas e Assuntos Públicos
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Undefined People and the Confucian Populism

Se-Hyoung Yi

Contemporary populism has been explained by an inherent antagonism between the innocent pure people and the powerful corrupt elite class. This understanding of politics necessarily attempts to define both who the people are and who the enemies of the people are in a political community. This essay analyzes the populist desire to verify the authenticity of the people by drawing on a different version of populism: Confucian populism. With its strong emphasis on the collective will of the people and the optimism about ordinary people’s capability of moral self-cultivation, Confucianism seems to meet some of the most important standards of contemporary populism. However, situating the people in a series of ever-expanding concentric circles of relationships, Confucianism undefines the people, resisting the relentless desire of contemporary populism to verify who is the authentic and pure people and who is not. This essay addresses that contemporary populism is not the only way to define populism, but it may be redirected or tamed in a more inclusive and democratic way by learning from a different understanding of “people.”