crisis has passed. Individual rights to freedom of political speech provide a mechanism for immediate dissent. Traditional mechanisms of remonstrance, by contrast, have little relevance in a world of powerful, intrusive, centralized states and modern political parties. Party cadres are hardly analogous to traditional Confucian bureaucrats.
If the problem in the West is that too many people and institutions are guarding the guardians, the problem with traditional Asian alternatives to human rights, at least as they seem to operate in their contemporary variants, is that too few are guarding, and they have inadequate power. It is not surprising that I suggest that if we must err it should be on the side of human rights. I say this, however, not simply as a Westerner who is comfortable with liberal democracy, but as a believer in universal human rights who is convinced that if the differences between East and West truly are as claimed, Asians can be trusted to exercise internationally recognized human rights in responsible ways that make the proper allowances for their cultural values.