East Meets West: Human Rights and Democracy in East Asia Paperback - 2000

First line

Hong Kong, December 29, 1997. Sam Demo, the East Asia program officer for the U.S.-based National Endowment for Human Rights and Democracy (NEHRD), enters the home of Joseph Lo.

From the rear cover

"Daniel Bell gets to the hard philosophical and empirical questions that hide behind the often corrupt political rhetoric about cultural difference and human rights. This fine book explores the major issues about the universality of human rights and democracy with great sensitivity, nuance, and rigor. It is full of new and interesting insights, ideas, and arguments."--Charles Taylor

"Daniel Bell is one of the few political theorists who is able to write dialogue, actually to conduct a philosophical conversation on the printed page. In this book, this difficult genre is used in an exemplary way to teach us about the political engagement of Western liberalism and 'Asian values'-and also about the possible meaning of human rights in a global setting."--Michael Walzer

"Unlike some Western critics who easily satisfy themselves by launching polemical criticisms of human rights violations and authoritarianism in Asia, Daniel Bell insists on giving a fair hearing to different political and philosophical voices from that region. The result of this is that he is able to develop powerful criticisms of Asian authoritarianism with careful philosophical and empirical support, and to construct alternative proposals of political institutions that may have appeal to people in the region."--Joseph Chan, University of Hong Kong