Infusing morality into political institutions

This paper argues that democratic institutional design does not require a sage's conception of morality, or Chinese Marxist, goal‐based morality. But it would be wrong to take this further and argue that no form of morality constitutes a normative basis for democratic politics. Contrarily, the author argues for a right‐based morality as being a solid moral foundation for Chinese liberal institutional design; and a procedural conception of morality as an actual basis for well‐functioning democratic institutions. The argument of the independence of politics from morality fails because the problem of the abuse of procedure intrinsically requires a moral remedy that procedure should be fair. Practical argument of the catastrophic consequences of infusing politics with moral principles fails because it fails to distinguish between goal‐based and right‐based moralities. The cultural relativist argument fails again because empirical moral diversity does not exclude a normatively minimal international morality and because a universal doctrine of right‐based morality is rooted in today's Chinese politics.