Confucian meritocratic rule has been recently advocated on the basis of the economic performance of Western democracies and the political ignorance of their average voters. These arguments are grounded in the analyses of real phenomena, but they are insufficient to establish the greater effectiveness of political meritocracy over democracy. This does not mean that the principle of political meritocracy (a principle of government that aims to strengthen the role of the competent and the morally good ones) is irrelevant to the solution of some of the troubles affecting contemporary democracies. On the contrary, such a principle could play a significant role in designing auxiliary institutional mechanisms to strengthen the quality of political leadership in a democracy.

中文翻译：

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贤能政治与西方民主的困境

最近，基于西方民主国家的经济表现和普通选民的政治无知，儒家精英统治被提倡。这些论点建立在对现实现象的分析之上，但它们不足以证明贤能政治比民主更有效。这并不意味着政治任人唯贤的原则（旨在加强有能力者和道德良好者的作用的政府原则）与影响当代民主的一些麻烦的解决方案无关。相反，这样的原则可以在设计辅助制度机制以加强民主政治领导的质量方面发挥重要作用。