Browsing by Subject "Equality -- Religious aspects -- Confucianism"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Toward Equity: The Rationalization of Inequality under the Utilitarian Logic of Protestantism and the Alternative Sociological Logic of Confucianism
    (2014) Vejr, Jakob; Gould, Mark
    This paper compares the cultural logics of contemporary USA and China through analysis of their respective religious foundations: Protestantism and Confucianism. The logics are analyzed with respect to their facilitation of a rationalization of inequality. It is found that the Protestant cultural logic is fundamentally utilitarian and thus unable to adequately conceptualize of social structural variables when formulating explanations for success and social stratification. Specifically this paper shows how a utilitarian logic is unable to distinguish between formal equality and equality of opportunity. Unable to conceptualize of the cultural construction of facially neutral institutions, utilitarian logic does not explain an individual's performance in institutions of the market or education as a product of their internal attributes or capacities and the structure of the institutions, but rather explains their performance in terms of the individual's attributes alone. This means that under the Protestant utilitarian cultural logic, individuals are blamed for their economic positions and structural inequality cannot be acknowledged. Under a Confucian logic, however, social structural variables can be fully conceptualized. The importance of ritual in the Confucian tradition indicates an awareness of and emphasis on social facts as important variables in explanations of human action. Thus, under the Confucian cultural logic, social structural variables are considered in the explanation of success of individuals in the institutions of the market and education. Inequality is thus not rationalized because formal equality and equality of opportunity are not conflated. Evidence for this claim comes from analysis of minority education policy in contemporary China. Affirmative action programs of many sorts indicate an awareness of the unequal structural barriers that minorities face in facially neutral and formally free institutions.