Due April 16, 2020The final research paper for this class is.docx

Due April 16, 2020
The final research paper for this class is your opportunity to tie
together you years here at FIU as an international relations
student with what has been covered in this course. The topic is
up to you to decide. A good topic will engage the course
literature and lectures. A good method for devising a research
topic will be to reflect on areas of knowledge you have built up
while at FIU and begin to re-examine those topics through the
fundamental literature we have covered in this course. In order
to avoid restricting your creativity, the final paper will not have
a page limit. You will be expected to fully engage your topic,
research question, and address all the issues in that area of
international relations. You can choose your own topic about an
historical or current event or person as seen from the
perspective of a philosopher. For example, what would Plato
have said about the election of President Trump? How would
Arendt have understood the popular hysteria leading to the
Rwandan Genocide?
This paper and the final should be formatted to be double-
spaced, 1 inch margin, and 12 font.
You will locate 4-6 sources that are important for understanding
your topic and following the citation of your chosen source
there will be 1-3 sentences explaining how/why this source will
support your topic. Only peer reviewed journals and/or
university press books are acceptable. Some popular journals
like Newsweek or the Economist could be used. You must also
include one class reading in your annotated bibliography.
ASIAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

TIMOTHY J. LOMPERIS
Saint Louis University
S cholars of Westem political thought have .not dis-puted the
fact that there is a rich body of political thought in Asia. They
lmve just not bothered to
incorporate it into their corpus. This chapter seeks to pro-
vide long-overdue recognition to this body of thought by
calling attention to the fact that despite its heavy religious
content (until modern times), the encounter with political
ideas in Asia is just as profound as it is in the West. In fact,
since these ideas in Asia are heavily fertilized by their
Western colonial legacy, the West has much to learn about
itself from these Asian borders to the West's material and
intellectual reach.
In this presentation of Asian political thought, what will
emerge is that the such central ideas as democracy,ji-eedom,
and equality were forn1ed in a historical context different
from the West. In the West, these ideas were expressed and
then refined through a prism of small city-states in Greece,
the universal empire of Rome, the subsequent collapse of this
imperium politically but its persistence intellectually in the
Thomist medieval synthesis, the smashing fem1ent (both
intellectually and institutionally) of the Renaissance and the
Reformation, and the birth of the modern nation-state in
the twin crucibles of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and
the French Revolution (1789-1795).
In Asia, these same ideas have been definitionally fil-
tered through a different historical stage in a play of three
acts. The first act is the traditional or classical era before
the Westem contact. We will see what from this period
endures as a mark today of"Asianness." The second act is

560
a scrutiny of the trauma of the colonial expericm:e. l Ji.,c
vast majority of Asian societies, either directly or mth,
rectly, came under Western eolonial eonlrol ur unikJ
spheres of Western influence. Ilow to react to thi:. in1m.:,;,11n1
precipitated a major ctisis but also resulted in a rid1 1md,
lectuaI fennent that produced the first articulu!il ,,i,. ,•I•
Asia's nationalisms. The third act is the modern t'-Cn<"'I
from the end of World War II to the present, when Asi,l ,,.,,,,.
set free on its own independent course. This has raised the
question, Whither modern Asia? Is Asia no dilforcnl lh•.m
a common globalizing world, or docs something llbtut.:,
tively Asian remain about its political thought'!
In these three acts, we will examine Asian conct.•p!s tiflhc
state and of statecraft, as well as or military grand s1m1cg1e:"'
and views on social equity and gender as they relate Ill th1..""'
three concepts. The focus will be on India um! Chinn
because these two ancient polities form the foundalillm1l p1J,
lam of Asia. Japan will also be given considerable atlcntiun.
along with some references to Korea. Southeast Asia will be
considered not so much as individual countries but us a
region tl1at has always been a tempestuous battleground
between Indian and Chinese ideas and institutions.
Theoretical Approach
Insofar as the political thought of Asia crune to the atten~
tion of Western political theorists, it tended to be painted.in
the broad brushes of overgeneralization. Karl Marx, In
outlining the global stages to his class struggle, wrote ol' an

"Asiatic mode of production" (quoted in Tucker, 1972,
p. 5), which he chanu.:terizcd as a labtir-inlcnsivc agricul-
tural society. Writing in this tradition, Karl Wlltfogcl
(1957) spelled this out as a form of "Oriental despotism"
ari::dng from the need to secure the necessary c()rvcc lnbor
to support the rice culture of what he termed "hydrau I ie soci-
ety." Taking a more cultural perspective, F. 8. ( •. Nm1hrnp
(l 946) distinguished Asia as having a more aesthetic
weltanschuuung than the scientific West. Ruther than the
clear subject object divide in the West, Asia, Northrop
contended, charted rculity along a mme l'lisctl aesllwtk
continuum, thereby creating different logics aml perel!p·
tions about the world.
More recuntly, such politit.:al scientists .is Lucian Pye
(1985) nml Duniel Bell (2000) have rl!nmrked on thu <lit:.
fcrent conceptions Asians bring to politics. To both, these
differencus require dcmocruey, in pnrticu lur. ltl undergo
considemble modiliculion for uny sm:ccssful transplanta-
tion to Asia. For Pye, the dwnges will have to allow for
a more dependent and paternal understunding (and accep-
tance) of pnwer. And ftir Bell, for Asia to be 1:0111fortable
with dcmocmcy, democracy will have tll give a special
place to knowledge over and above mere de111ucmtk
egalitarianism.
This is because idem; of <lcniocrncy, lh.:cdt1111, and
equality have developed llUt 01'11 historical context dillcr-
ent frnm the West':-. This conh:xt has led to cnndusions nn
the grnunding or these idl!as that are also ditforcnt from the
conclusions or the West. Put simply. We!itcrn pulitkal
thought is grounded in the individual as Liu: hash.: unit nf
politics, and in equality, in stm1c liirm, as the al·t·cptcd
basis for human relations ,md pnlitiL'al ruk. In the Asian
context, political thtiu~ht came lo h1: tn1t11Hk•d in the
group, not the individual. and in hicmn:hy. nut cqual1ty. As

shall be dear from the dL1scrir1tio11 ol' thi.: Ctlltcxt nr thn:L·
historical nets. the contact or the idem; ot' dcnwL·mcy. fret.··
dom, and equality with Asia calls liir some rcformulatiun.
In line, thi:; elrnpter explains that in 1assing these ll1rcL~
ideas lhrnugh an Asian histurical t:ncmmtcr. rnlL' L',111 ant n•
at l'icbl.!1 nmlticulturnl dcliliitions of sul'h scl'n1111~ly
11111-
versal political ideas.
Classical Asia
Asia has provided an arena for all the wnrld's value sys-
tems. Hinduism is the oldest. Its earliest forms wcrc
similar to the religion and idt:us or the ancient tircck:i.
Perhaps the Indo-Aryan invaders llf the lndiun subcun-
ti nent effaced the smne Triple Cfoddess m errun by
Jason and his Greek Argon11uts in the Black Seu city of
Colchis. In any case. Hinduism emerged in the first mil·
Jenni um BCE as 11 religion and political culture of conquest.
Buddhism amse later as a sort of L.utl1eran relbnnation to
Hinduism. ll held distinctly gentler political ideas. This
gentler failh, however, was literally obliterated by Muslim
Asian Political Tlumgllt • 561
invasions inlo the subcontinent that began in the 8th cen-
tury CE. (Buddhism went on lo thrive in China, Japan,
Korea, and Southeast Asia.) These new invaders oscil-
lated between two upproaches in !heir new dominions.
One was lo extenninule opposition and fon:c Islam by the
sword. The other wai; to cooperate with local power
groups and rule by accommodation. As it spread to
Southensl Asia, Islam became more modcrule and diffuse
in its ideas uml practices.
In ( 'hina around the 6th century llCE, Confucianism

devdopcd its own order among society, nature, and the
cosmos. This onlcring ririnciple, ul' the dual forces of yin
and ynng, was nn early portrait or u hisloricul dialectic sim-
ilar to that in the writings or I leraclitus, l Jegcl, und Marx.
Whill! ( 'onl'udanism prnpoundcd a rigidly hiernrchicul
sociopnlitkal order, the "turning or the wheel" from
I h1ddhism .ind the "rt.:version or the Dao" from Daoism
i1HrmluL:ed the idea or redprndty. Mencius politicized the
mlc or the emperor by entrusting him with the Mm1datc of
I leaven, but in tying this mandate lo rcciprodty, Mencius
also gave the pt.!nplc lhe right of revolution. Daoism aducd
the 111ystic:il and th! mugical to this mix. For all its order,
this ancient C 'hine:-.c system g.iw hirth lo II rom:111cc or
prntcst, with sage-knights :11.:ting as Robin I lomls. These
liilk hemes later inspired modern revolutionaries such ns
Man Zi..•dung ( Sehwarl/, I t>H5).
In this Asim1 tlranm. us in Europe. !here has been a grad-
ual gnmch ll( sl!cularism. But motkrn seculari:m1 has
lll'l.'I' been ,umplctcly succcssfiil in lndiu, and religion has
never d11:d III C 'hi1111. ln India, religion rl!prcsc11ts ll com-
pktL' ,alue system. This llca:ily religious value system,
hmn.' er. did nut predutk lengthy and systl!mmic trcal-
1111.•111 or p111iti17;d qucsti1111s. Tiu: cpk M11//ahh,m11a
eon-
1.1111, lung 11nhtiL'al t!ssa;·s 1111 st,ltl.'cra Ii, kingship. and
n11 ll1,1ry sllalcg~. One .mdcnt text. Kautilya 's :lrtlwshustm.
mtrndun::, all Mm:hiavdli's i,kas ;ibmu puliticul sur,,ivtd
nH11~· th,111 a lhm1sand yl!:11s carlii:r than The flrifl<'<'
cBasham. I ll~<lJ. < 'hma ,lc111t111stratcd a 1111)rc rnhust
tradi-
111111 111' sc·ularism, partly bc,·imsc tinnu:ianism never
r,•ally addn:s~cd the ,111est11m ti!' ( iud. Buddhism lilied this
~.:ap 1111: I i:}lahsrs a11cmptl.'d t11 plan' law as a hight'r
prin-
dpk of stil'.1al urdcnllJ! than cosntiL' rhytluns uf yin and

yan~i Bui d;,n;1stic mkrs prd~m:d the mnhiguitics or the
,:m,rnus to th1: l'.i1ncrch: l'Ullstraints ur the law. ln C 'hina,
11111, as tn ;111 Asia, r1.•ligion stayed on lop, li1:-i11g
society
am.I pulitks tu thL' sum:lity. sam:tiuns. und politicul pmtcc-
lltHI ur the ~.mb ( Schw.ir11. I tJX5 ).
Mme than 1m lop. lhc Y.um1111 cl.Ill in .htpan proclaimed
thl'llh,dH:s to he g.utls. In their :-;uccc:;s, they lmvc provided
Jupan with the lungcst single line nfldngs in world history
irnd 11 scnsL~ uf natkmalis111 and ethnic ic.lt::ntity thut runs
very dccf1. Although "divinely" rnled, the Japanese never
!MIW themselves us holding lhc gntewuy ttl heaven. They
were. then, nut averse tCl btim1wing, and they k1oked to
C'onfuchmism and Buddhism to order their slate and mean•
ing system. lronfo:nlly, integn1ting this borrowing into
indigenuus Shinto belie£.. became men's work. The further
562 • POLITICAL THOUGHT
development of Japanese culture-its novels, ceremonies,
and haiku poetry-was left to the creative talents of
women. Although gods reigned, warriors m led and warred
in Japan. A strong knightly code of Bushido steeled the rul-
ing samurai class in the political culture of the warrior-
ruler-knights (Yuzan, 1941).
Meanwhile, great kingdoms arose in Southeast Asia,
mostly on borrowed Hindu ideas transmitted by Theravada
Buddhism from Sri Lanka (Ceylon). There was the
Kingdom ofTen Thousand Elephants in Laos, Borobuddur
and Bali in Indonesia, and the Khmer empire in Cambodia.
The latter's capitol, Angkor Wat, is still the largest reli-
gious building complex ever built. Political ideas and insti-

tutions in this porous, vulnerable region were mostly
Indian (the Chinese influences in Vietnam were the notable
exception), but the societies of much of Southeast Asia
were ethnically Malay and were held together mainly by
their customa1y adat, or customs. These customs set up
three social classes (a ruling aristocracy, free land holders,
and slaves) bound together in a network of mutual obliga-
tions and responsibilities. In this adat, property and author-
ity could be held and inherited just as easily by women as
by men. When the Muslims came to Southeast Asia in the
13th and 14th centuries, they had about run out their polit-
ical tether and lacked the vehemence that they displayed in
India. They superimposed the veneer of their sultanates
on Malaya and Indonesia but were content to have the
sultanates upheld by Hindu and Buddhist political princi-
ples and by tl1e Malay social adat (Tambiah, 1976).
In classical Asia, then, politics were decidedly authori-
tarian, and more specifically tegal, rather than democratic.
In India, nevertheless, besides just guaranteeing order, or
danda, kings were obliged to promote the welfare of the
people. In China, this promotion extended to the principle
of reciprocity and even to tl1e right of the people to rebel.
Nevertheless, freedom in classical Asia was more of a reli-
gious goal than a political right: freedom from the cycle of
rebirths in India and in the cultivation of an inner peace of
the soul in China. Thus, in both societies, freedom was a
private preserve separate from the crush of public (com-
munal, religious, and political) responsibilities and duties.
ln these feudal systems of Asia, these responsibilities were
mainly to hierarchically ordered groups. Equality, then,
was a relative value and was tied to the status and position
of one's group compared with others. Any equivalence to
modem Western ideas of equality could be procured only
within one's group (and primarily for one's family), not
outside it.

Colonial Asia
The conquests of Western imperialism shattered this order.
Most of Asia was directly colonized. Even those who
escaped direct rule--like the Japanese, Koreans, Chinese,
and Thai-were still pulled into an international political
and economic system dominated by Western imperial
powers. Because Asian polities had unbroken insliluti<mal
histories for two millennia (in some cases), punclmllcd hy
their own moments of glory, the question ol' how to h<1th
accommodate and account for this Western imposi1inn
and superiority provoked deep soul-scan:hing among
Asians.
Nowhere was this more deeply felt than in India, which
became the crown jewel of the British Empire ur 50
colonies worldwide. Some Indians embraced Western civ·
ilization. The British Viceroy, Lord Thomas Macuulay,
was pa1tial1y successful in creating "a class of pen.tin!>,
Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinion.
in morals, and in intellect" (Spear, 1961, p. 257). L,ucr.
these scions were called "Brown Sahibs." In lllrtl1emncc uf
this strategy, the British invested in a modern u11ivcr:s1ly
system for India. A proud accompl ishmenl or tit is sysl~m
was the Nobel Prize for Literature in I 9 l3 won hy the
Bengali intellectual Rubindranath Tagore, writing in the
King's English (Metcalf~ 200 l ).
Following in the wake of the British nti were legions l!f
Christian missionaries who preached their "good news" nnrd
practiced their social gospel with institutions tif Slll.'.utl
reform. Beyond a nationwide network of sclmols, !he) :-11.*l
up hospitals, orphanages, homes for widows, lcpru:owm·
ums, demonstration farms for peasant laborers, and s<l('1;1I

services for outcasts. Many Hindus, nlthough leery tif Ill<
"good news," eagerly took up this cause or social rcfnrm
and, in the Bmhmo Samaj of the 19th century. launched
their own social gospel of reform or some or the ills ,md
neglects of Hinduism. Muslims displayed a split rc.ic1nin
to the Empire. Since they were lndia's previous ruler,..,
some resisted, and they went down to defeat in the Mulm~
of 1857. Others, such as Sir Sayccc.l Ahmntl Khan. anii.:u,
lated a path of accommodation with the British, insisun~
that Islam had no objections to at least the polith!ul culturlZ
of the West. Indeed, as a monotheistic "religion ur thi:
Book," Islam was the more naturnl ally of this culture th;m
was polytheistic Hinduism. Still othern were nol so ~ur~
of either the Hindus or the British {Pye, 19K5). It ~;1,
Mohammed Iqbal--poet, theologian, aml political thcmbt
who gave eloquent voice to a separate destiny !hr Mm,hm~
in the subcontinent (Malik, 1971 ).
Although never a directly ruled colony, the reacliun m
China was equally intense. Tiananmen Square in Bcijini
was an architectural declaration that it wus the gateway h1
Heaven. British gunboats brought a string of military
humiliations that shattered this gateway. A man who
dreamed that he was the younger brother of Jesus Chri~t
proclaimed a new portal and led the biwrre Taipinl:l,
Rebellion of the 1850s and 1860s. The movement also
preached equality for women and, at first, democracy. In
its suppression, it might have been dismissed as one of
those oddities of history, were it not for tho subsequent
influence the rebellion had on Mao Zedong and other rev-
olutionary modernizers (Ogden, 2002).
Meanwhile, the Qing Dynasty, Chinn 's last, made
earnest attempts at rcthnn. Western education replaced

classical texts for imperial civil service examinations.
Principles of constitutional democracy and parliamentary
elections were introdul!cd, as were modern railroads, mili~
tary academies, and financial institutionH. ln 1911, the
mixture of protest and reform exploded into a nationalist
revolution and a nearly 40-ycar interregnum of ehaos.
Intellectually, the boiling cuuldron of this ferment was
known ns the Muy Fourth Movement. In I.he lrnmilintion of
the demands of the upstart .lapuncse for the Shamlong
Peninsula al the Peace Conlcrcncc at Vcrsail lcs in May
1919, Chinese intellectuals dcspcralcly cast about for :1
prescription for modern power: in the prnginalism and lib-
eralism of John Dewey and the United States, in the mi li-
tarism from Germany und Japan, in language rel'nrm and
mass education, in physical culture and the cmtmdpalion
of women, in the assassirrntions und eomnurncs ol' mwr-
chism, and even in the communism of Karl Marx and the
Bolshevism or Russia (Zhou, I %0).
Then: was ferment in Southeast Asia as wdl. Pemmnts,
in a series of protests a Iler World Wnl' I. decried the col-
lapse of 11 trnditional social and political order guaranteed
by a royalty and l'cudal rctuincrs lhut used to sali!guard
their livelihoods and provide a sense of place anti security
by the Mandate ol' lh:avcn (in Vietnam), tile will tif Alluh
(in Malaya and lndoncsiu), the mandalu pallcm t1f pnlitks
and international relations ( in Thailand und Camhmlia ),
and u transl'ernl or mcril from Buddha (in Burma anti
Laos). Arter an initial. if reluctunt, uccommodatiun with
Western power and political institutions, these peasants
and emerging intcllcctuuls searched for thdr own h:rms nf
modern survival. The Cao Dai sect in Vietnam, whkh wnr-
shippcd nn all-seeing cosmic eye as interpreted hy Vklor
Hugo, Jesus Christ, Confucius, l.no Till, and foan uf An:.
il!ustrntcd this perplexity. The mood of rcsil,!nation lo thl'sc
confusing, but powerllil, outside forces was captmcd h~

the popult11· J tJth-century cpk pnl"m in Vietnam. K.mr nm
Kie11. This poem was a creative remake of :rn oltl ( 'him:sc
stmy nf n liliu I daughter who slays lrnc !ti her 1mtk:scn inµ
folhcr in a lire of untold sulforing but stcmlfosl ticvnlmn.
These r,casant protests, then. grew out ol' lh1:-.tr;itinns 1i 1.•r
their dcvoli(lll lo u traditional structure that could no lunger
i;ccnre this order ( Kershaw, 200 I),
In Japan in IX53. the conuncrciid viiiit or the ll.S,
naval communder ( 'ommodurc Matthew Purry found the
Japanese nt a moment in their history when they were
ready for an opening frorn the outsil.le. Their mature lcu-
dal order had reached a point of stugnutitm. A knightly
class of samurai undergirded an aristocracy that hdli the
emperor ho::.tage, even a:. this monarchy as an insliluticm
provided continuity, identity, and n sense of co::.mic pluce
for all Japanese. In the name or restoring the emperor to
real power (somwjoi), aristCJcratic modernizers overthrew
this samurai-dominated regime in what was called 1he
Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Constitution established a
Asian Political Thm1gltt • 563
liberal parliamentary system in the name of the c11111cror.
But for all this constilutiomdism, the fapancse actually
modcrnizcc.l through a military path of war with China
lirsl ( 1895) uml then Russia ( 1905; Gluck, 1985 ). Along
with these impressive manilestations of modem power,
the continued hold of samumi vnlucs, for all this Mcij i
"liberalism," wus nurtured by the.: education of all
Japuncse school children in rne Stm:v <!l tlw 47 Ronin, in
which linal loyalty was still given to extreme profossinns
of honor, in the nmnc of the cmpcrur. It was u path that
tumbled Japan into World Wur [I, its grculcst national
disaster (Bcncdict, 1946).

The fonnent touched off by European imperialism in
Asia was uot exclusively one wny. Eumpcans who had
prolonged coutad with Asian srn.:ictics were ol'tcn sur-
prised at what they saw. Despite their political wcuknusscs,
thc:;c sm:ictics revealed sophisticated and well-articulated
cultures. A lwst or scholars called "Oricnlnl ists," muny of
whom had served us colonial mlministrutors, begun to
trm1sl:rte hack for Eumpcun m1dicnces the ''pearls of the
Orient": thc philnsophk Upam):lwcls und the twin epics,
lite Me1lwhlwratll und the Ramaymw. from India, and tl1c
Analects 11( C1111/iwiu.~ nnd the J.>cw d<• Jing of Luo Dzc
( Lao Tzu) from C'hinn. Thc 111,ist mnbiti11us ,1 l' these rro-
jccts wai; thl.' I 11lh-ccntury "Ooldcn Bough" i,;crics of trans-
lations into Fnµlisl1. sponsm·cd by I lnrvard University, of
nwsl of' Asi,1 's linesl truditional work$. Thb impact, hnw-
evcr, was nmrc llum just inlhrmntivc. tdcas Ihm, these
trnnslatinns wor'ked their way into the transl:cntlcntulism
of the New Fn~land liM·ati (particularly on Ralph Waldo
Fmcrsun "m,crsntil"), us well us into lhc philosophic
syst~·ms o!' Martin l lcidcggcr and Fl'icdrich Nictzscl1c
and cwn into the 1111vcl:,; of' I krman flcssc, among others
tUarkc, PN7J.
l ln/<Htunatcly, some uf this nunantic "llricntulism"
tumi.nl p·ncrsc. ln thi:-. disc1wcry ,11'thc deep 1.:ulll1ral
ronls
,11' Asta. so1111.: Wcstcm sdmlars. partirnl.irly Uennau,
bt:g.111 h1 s1.•c llwmsclvl.'s ,ls dc!>ccndants or an elite lndo-
Ary,111 hru1h1:rhoud thal 1.•xtcmlcd from lhl.' Indus River hi
tht• Rhme ( M ulkr, It) 19 t ( icnnan natitmal sncinlism sub-
scqmmtly appr,1priatcll th!.' andeut I lrndu symhnl li.1r uni-
versal hrnthcrhnnd ns the i:cntcrptcL·e lo iii; !lag, !he
s,~ astil-.a
At lirst lfollcrcd by this ,11tcnlio11, mrnlcrn Asi,1n inkl-
kduals for their part hi.'.gun to resist this drnrnctcrizutiun

of a si:p.iwtc t1ric111albm us 1ant:111m11nt to u
i.:ivilizutimrnl
dismiss,11 similar tn the "sep,1rntc but cquul" kg:il <lm:trine
in the t Jnitcd States lhut scrvcll In perpchmlc racinl dis-
crimination. Whether intdlcdual trnditions prnduuc cul-
turally distinct idem, nr whether universal ideas fhrm uml
recllmbinc tlu~mselvcs 11rnuml different inlellectual tnu.Ji-
tions is II pervasive isi.ue of cpisternolt1gy. For the !ltudy of
political though! in Ash1, however, the unfortunate effect
of c,ricn1ali:.m has been to dismiss pol itic11I Lhllughl in Asia
as being lou cfosely Lied to religious constructiuns to be
worthy of secular analytical scrutiny.
Modern Asia
World War II (1939-1945) brought disaster to Europe.
Even in victory, the power of Britain and France collapsed,
and, with that collapse, their empires unraveled and their
hold over Asia ended. In independence, not always easily
gained, Asia was now free to find itself and define politics
in ways authentic to a free Asia and to the particular set of
traditional legacies and aspirations of each of its societies.
In this mix of the traditional and the colonial, what set of
political ideas and institutions would serve independent
Asian nations still having to fend for themselves in an
international system of Western creation and continued
dominance? In Asia's postwar trajecto1y of growing eco-
nomic prosperity and rising global political influence,
answers to this question have produced rich and innovative
contributions to the ongoing development of political
thought per se.

After World War II, all of Asia wanted to regain what
Asian counh·ies saw as their lost importance in the world.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India,
expressed these hopes for all Asians when, in his exultant
Independence Day speech on August 15, 194 7, he
declared, "Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny,
and now the time comes when we shall redeem our
pledge" (cited in Hardgrave & Kochanek, 2000, p. 53).
Colonialism, he argued, had drained the wealth and ener-
gies of Asia, and now it would just flow back (Nehm,
1959). Although it certainly did not flow back right away,
in the opening years of the 21st centu1y, this tryst with a
recaptured Asian global importance seems well within
reach.
The Indian subcontinent, however, has been plagued by
serious differences both as to how to attain an independent
India and as to what it would look like. The towering fig-
ures in this agony were Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi was the moral father of modem India. After travel-
ing around India for 4 years after his return from South
Africa at the age of 41 in 1915, Gandhi discovered his
three themes of poverty, unity, and indepe11dence. As he
made the continuation of British rule untenable, he won-ied
about an India "in pursuit of Lakshmi" (wealth), freed
from the moderating restraints of religion. Thus, even as he
dete1mined to entrust the future course of India to Nehru,
he was troubled by the younger man's Hamlet-like agnos-
ticism (Gandhi, 1957),
Nehru epitomized Macaulay's "Brown Sahib," and
Nehru's highly cerebral autobiography, The Discovery of
India (1946/1959), was really an m1iculation of his own
divided soul. His professed admiration for the ancient
Hindu scriptures and epics was profoundly philosophical
and somewhat idealized. He prefen·ed to highlight the

moments of unity and power and gloss over the divisions
and wars oflndia's past. He could not bring himself to take
this philosophical appreciation to a spiritual awakening.
For Nehru, the influences of a secular English liberalism
were too strong for this. To him, the best (ll' India lay in ii,
moments of unity around a clwkravarti11, or unh·cr::;.;tj
emperor, such as Ashoka, Harsha, or Akbar. lkcatbC or
India's deep religious and social divides, Nchm felt that
this unity could come, in modern times, only under a ~c,
ular India united by Western principles of lihcrnl <lcmoc~
racy. The Congress Party was rounded with this as its cor~
credo. Unfortunately, Nehru dulled his ccom1mks h~
embracing the socialism of the British Fuhi:ms 11nd lh~
Russian Bolsheviks (he expressed a continual admimtii1ri
for the accomplishments of the 5-year pluns of the Smil.'!t
Union). Under Nehru's lcadcrshi11 as prime 1m1w,ter
(l 947-1964), Lakshmi, the goddess or wt:ullh, rcmainql
aloof (Nehru, 1946/1959).
Although Gandhi and Nehru were the gi,mh, ,•1111:r
voices arose in the subcontinent. lronknlly cm111f.!h.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the father or mmh:rn P.iJ..1,tiln.
shared Nehru's secularism cwn as he insislcd utt .1 ""r-t-
rate Muslim state. 01hers in Pakistan ct1llcd for thi., ,1a1c !11
be subservient lo the Jslmnh: Shari'a. This tlni~Ml h;t~
brought the country to the brink of im11lnsiu11 o',;:f the
never-healing sore ol' Kashmir and the recent rc.:rhtr.1.
tions of Islamic radicalism lhm1 Al'glmnishm ,md d•.:.
where in the Muslim wmld. There huvc 1-»!cll ~t,nl
voices in Hinduism a.s well. The terrorism c"~m,<J
B. K. Tilak heforc World Wur I and the foi.l.'.bm ul :,iubt,Jt,
Chandra Bose in World War II round exprc,,u,n 111
Hindu commtmalism or !-;anlar Vullahhhlmi fl,itd, S<ltni
co-prime minister in tht: lirst 2 yc.ir.. ol' imkf"Cltt!,;rt;,;,t
Patel died of u heaii attack, but these :-;c·cral d1 MH"

~,~i1~.h
collected into the I lindu nationalism or Mr .. l . :tlur,,i
the Bharaliyu Janata Prniy, whkh is now a crn:,10,1! 11,~,i,,,i,
•• r
rival to the secular Congn.:ss Party, J ndia :md l',1!..1~tu1
confront each other us nuclear powl.'r,. ;m~I ,a,1,,>f-h,;r.
chnkrnvartin, in this lcnxe sube~intinent. b n,• h~~.: i:i
(Mehta, 1996).
ln China. the lirst coherent voit:I..' tu nrlt:'11t1t· ..;i
modernization out or the swirling slt;1ml, nl
Fourth Movcnicnl was Sun Y,ll·scn, ht1 ,hl1.,i,,,.l1c~£ 1
min cl111yi (thrnc people's prindplci.l tit' l"'-'''l'k',.
hoot!, people's rule, aml pcopk:'s na1i111rnli"m lh.:
to uphold China's traditional Mandatc ul' lk.1'l'.!I lt,i:
was translated into rural lil'c as "lm1d tu the U!lt·11"
1,H:~0;r:..:
that the communists later tried to cull their 1m nl t
second principle, tkmocrm;y, Sun culkd l!if ;1
to constitutional democracy in ('hinu th1,•uih 1IM:i,i
stages of tutelage. In pructic<!, Sun's p-ohtn;;:il
Gumnindang, could not pull it utl It hin.::b'l;d
between the Christian sucial gospel of the Nt'iil
Movement and an Italian-like fascism or Bill(;' ShtJ1
pline, all the while continuing in a reluclJUlOI: •~
power. Even as Sun's ideology tailed in ChtnL rl
the basis for the subsequent ecunomic mime:le <m
It also desctibes the long path taken by South
economic prosperity and a lagged followint4, of
perity to full democracy (Wells, 200 I),
r
I

Another failure was the Hu Shih liberals, who
embraced linguistic reform and lJ.S."style demrn.:racy. This
faction was discredited by President Woodrow Wilson's
treachery at the Treaty of Versailles (in acquiescing to
granting the Concession of lhe Slrnndong Peninsula lo
Japan, mther than his public promise that it would he
returned to China), even us it went on to discredit itself
domestically by joining with the left-wing branch of the
Guomindang in the strategic historical error of siding with
the Japanese in their puppet stnlc of Manchukuo.
The communists were the ultimate victors in holh the
civil war with the Guomindang um] in the articulation of
modern China. Although the form or government came
straight from Lenin, Mm1 Zedong; frirmulaled u 110vel strat-
egy of revolution-e•people's war an<l introdw.:ed :;cveral
innovative political projects and organizations, most or
them disastrous. It was Deng Xiao Ping. the architect ol"
China's unprccl.!denled current economic gmwth, who
reintroduced to China a pragmatism worthy or both
Machiavelli and Adam Smith. This was reflected in his
legendary question about the importance of the color oflhe
cal as long as it could cutch mice. The credit !hr this prag-
matism, however, lay in the Four Modernizations of
Deng's earlier protector, Zhou Enlai, who quietly made a
career of fixing many of the excesses or Mao ·s zeal. It was
an uneasy Gandhi-Nehru-like relationship. and China st!I'..
fored for it- -but might have suffered more without it
(Goldman, 1994).
The truly novel definition or modernity in Asia came
from Japan. Utterly dcl'catcd in World War 11 and under
foreign occupation afterwurds { l 945 1952) fnr the lirst
lime in its history, Japan, in Article IX or its new constitu-
tion, outlawed war as an instn11nent ur li.ireign policy and
forbade the country to have a11ything hut a minimal "Sdr-

Defensc Force" as a militury institution. ls a sovereign
state, in what was called the Yoshida Dm:trine, Japan
placed its security in the hands of the llnitcd States and
dedicated its own energies exclusively toward Cl'Olllllllil.'
prosperity. Si nee then, in tile era alkr the ,.:old war, scwral
intcllcctuul and political voices have gmwn rcstin.' umler
this nrrungement. One popular political writer. a limnl.'r
mayor of Tokyo, titled his recent hook • .lust ,'11y .'11 lo
the United States. Others question the concept orrmtional·
ity us an unwekomc Western transplant even us they mlil··
ulate a distinctive identity and place for Japan (Sakai, de
Bary, & Toshio, 2005 ).
Southeast Asia has continued to lament its strategic
weakness. For nearly all Southeast Asian natkms. modem·
ization has been :iccompanied by ou!bursls o!' imlig.cnous
violence. It was convulsive in Indonesia in I 965 und again
in 1998-1999. Burma, Thailand, Philippim:s, Mu layu,
Vietnam, Cambodia, an<l Laos ull were wracked by immr-
gencies. Except for Malaya, the United States intervened
in all ofthem, massively so in Vietnam. In these struggle:;,
each country sought lo define its own modem national
identity in attempts to fashion integnitive polities that
Asf1111 P<Jlititx,l Tlwug!,t • 565
coul<l overeome the separatist groups and ideologies fuel-
ing lhc insurgencies. With most of these convulsions over
by the start of the new millennium (2000 ), these countries
have now endeavored to integrnte regionally. Their organi-
zation, the Association of Soulh!.!ast Asian Nations, repre-
sents an interesting institutional countcrpt1ise in intcniational
!'elations lo the more developed European Union.
Conclusion: Cultural
Grounding of Concepts

This considcmtion of the politicnl thought of Asia as it has
responded to the three contextual challenges of the classi-
cal. colnuial, and nrndcrn pcriods brings us to the question
or an Asian distinctiveness regarding nwdcrn Asian con-
ccplinns nl' denwcracy and its emnpaninn ideas of li·ccdom
and equality. illlmugh the constitutions ol' many Asian
slates, those ol' l11diu and Jap:m in particular, hear the
imprint of Western ideas and institutions, lite sources or
these idem; emerge from dillbrent cultures and hi:,;torical
cxpcriern.:cs. Asian ones. tt rnol, although there is nothing
in Asian experience or culture to preclude democracy
itself: what may require ~lill'crcnl institutional expression
of rhis 1irim:iple is the fundnmcntal di ffercncc hclwcen
Asitt and the West over the balance between the individual
uml !he family. In ull Asian countries. fornily anti its tics to
the stnh.• and its loyalties come before the freedom lo churl
individual destinies. In the West, on the other hand, indi-
viduals arc cm.:ourngcd to cut loose from family tics lo
frcdy chart their individual fi.irlm11.:s with mi inequalities in
status dtlwr wilhin the thrnily or in the larger sncicly (nl
11.:ast in tlwnry l. This di ffcrcnl hahml'C calls for a dillcn:nt
ddinitiunal rl•l:11innship uf freedom an,I etJuulity tn
dclllol·ral·y. Nt1 rnic hus made this dislinctilln more clear
titan I.cc Kw.in Yew, the former prillll' minister of
Sinµaplln.'. wlw hils insisted that dcnu11:racy in Asia must
still hi.' ~11h111dinah.· to fomily tlisl·iplinc and lhcrcliirc
lllalk no apnloµics for authori1inµ the: p11blk caning or
Western ;alnlcst:cnts for vandalism in the streets nfhis city
(lkll. ~(J(l(I)
J fcnt:l'. to dtsrnss dcmrn:r.11:y 111 Asia. Wl' need to bring
utl11:r words aml Clllll'Cpls inl11 play. Jh:ally, dl·moerncy in
Asia should he .i:l in a disl'Ussilln of :-.talcnafl and politi·
cal authority. llu:st: bsucs. in Asia, were fticuscd on creat-
ing order a11d preserving sol.'ial hiL·1-.irchy. altlmugh nil

Asian polith:al li;ts!crns rccu1,1ni1cd that statccrun and
political authority were he~! scrn:d hy reciprocity and the
legitinmting nf 1hcir uctions in ways that earni!d public
supr,ori. untl uppmval. There ,m..' cuntcxtuul gmunds, then,
for th.:mocniL:y in A:.iu, but not on the sumc cguli!uriun
friundations us in the Wt:st. Pye ( l lJX:'i). for example, tulks
nt'dcmocracy in Asia us best urising out of u hishirical con-
tcx;l of paternal authority and what he culls 11 politics <f
de/H!lltlt•m·,•. Hell (2000) has pmposed an Asian bicameral
legislature, willl one house bused cm popular egnlilarian
representation and the other on knowledge, a "House of
Scholars." Parenthetically, this notion brings us around the
intellectual circle to Plato's insistence on ultimate rule by
philosopher-kings (Lomperis, 1984).
Similarly, the Westem centerpiece, freedom, needs to
be recast in Asia as well Rather than all the human rights
guaranteed to individuals in the West through a constitu-
tional Bill of Rights and the like, freedom in Asia has been
differently defined in at least three ways. First, in Asia,
freedom is more of a group concept than an individual
one. Indians could pursue swanlj (self-rule) against the
British, but to its greatest champion, Gandhi, for indi-
viduals swaraj meant more communal responsibilities to
autonomous little communities (ashrams), not more indi-
vidual human rights.
Thus, second, freedom for the individual boils down to
relative degrees of autonomy from the multilayered oblig-
ations of these all-encompassing social structures. The
overarching value here is responsibility. Freedom is the

leftover. Daoist knights-errant and Hindu kshatriya war-
riors had the freedom of battle and of strategy, but only
within the parameters of their larger duties to the Heavenly
Mandate in China and the cosmic dharma (duties) of their
souls in India. In the Indian epic Mahabharata, the hero
Arjuna was not allowed the freedom to be a pacifist and
opt out of the cosmic baitle at Kurekshetra because the
duty of his kshatriya caste compelled his martial service to
uphold order. For women, duties were equally stark. In
China, the vittues of high-class women were secured by
footbinding. High-caste widows in ancient India had the
"freedom" of avoiding the dejected status of widowhood
or humiliating pollution of remarriage by committing
suttce (self-immolation on a funeral pyre).
Third, the fullest expression of freedom in Asia is reli-
gious. In China, Buddhism offered release, or nirvana,
from the world and its politics. Daoism cultivated a free-
dom of the soul within the external responsibilities and
rituals of Confucianism. And in India, the householder
(the responsible citizen, in Western pal'!ance) could hon-
orably flee to the forests, after discharging his many
social and political duties, and seek moksha, the release
that comes from enlightenment. Until the insertion of
Western politics and ideas, freedom, in Asia, did not lie
in politics.
Finally, the overarching Western ethos of equality has
had a strong impact on all Asian societies. Indeed, this idea
became the linchpin to undennining the Western imperium
itself. But even with this wave of Western egalitarianism,
Asian societies retain an even more profound rootedness in
hierarchy. Western ideas of equal treatment and equal
dignity have woven their way into the fabric of all Asian
societies. But the "rightness" of hierarchy remains
(Dumont, 1970). Gandhi, for example, called members of

the "untouchable" caste haxijans, or "children of God," but
still supported the moral virtue of the hierarchical caste
system itself. Echoes of the old Confucian hierarchy
remain strong in China, as do patterns of the samurai ritual
and hierarchical obligations in Japan, particularly in its
unique corporate culture. Thus, equalily in Asia, with lhis
hierarchical persistence, is better rendered as equity. which
is a word that gives more mom for social laddern in a for-
mulation of fairness and justice.
Illustratively, then, in passing these three universal
political concepts of democracy, freedom, and equality
through the analytical prism of the historical context of
Asia, we find that all Asians persist in holding onto two
anchors. First, Asians retain a strong rrelcrence for groups,
particularly the extended family, over individunls ns the
primary unit of society. Second, in this preforcncc lbr
groups, Asitms continue to choose a hierarchicnl ordering
of these groups over any comrrehcnsive notions of l'ull
social equality. The persistent hold (lf these two tinclmrs
necessitates an Asian rcfonnulation or these corn.:cpt:,;,
which have heretofore been defined only l'rom a Western
context. Thus, the expression of individual lhicdmn or
rights from the West must in Asia be tcmpcrcll by a greater
consideration for group rcsronsibilities so lhat freedom in
Asia is merely a relative autonomy from them. Similarly,
the penchant for hierarchy in Asia imposes equity as an
appropriate expression of fairness, rather than equality.
Tuming to politics from these two reformulations, ,kmoc~
racy in Asia, therefore, will need lo be constrw.:tecl and
expressed in political arrangements that value groups aml
legitimate hierarchy. Thus, the cultural scllings of such
seemingly universal politicul conccpls as dcmocrncy. free-
dom, and equality achieve richer meaning and nmmcc
when analyzed comparatively through their cvt1lutiun in

other cultures, including those in Asia.
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.rnw.l:
Patterns 11f'Japa11t'se c11/t11re. Bostrni: l loughton MHllm.
Brown, D. M. ( 1954). Tlw wltitl' 11111/irc/lv: l11dlm1
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thought from Mwm to Ga11dlti. Berkeley: Uni•crsi1y of
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Brown, D. M. ( 1965). The 1wlimw/is/ 1t10'e111e111: lucliw,
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Clarke, J. J. ( l 997). Oricmlul e11lighte11111e111: 71,e
i'lll't1U11ta
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n-r;,u-
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DeBary, W. T. (1983). The liberal tradition in China. New
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DeBary, W. T., & Weiming, T. (Eds.). ( 1999). Cmifuci,mism
t111d
human rights. New York: Columbia University Press.
Dumont, L. ( 1970). Homo hierarchic11s: The caste system and
i/.v
implications. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gandhi, M. K. ( 1957). An autohiogmphy: The story r1/'111y
cxper-
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Gluck, C. ( l 985) . .Japan:~ modem myths: Ideology in t/1('
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Me(ji period. Princeton, NJ: Princcto11 U11ivcr:d1y Press.
Goldman, M. ( 1994 ). Sowing the .1'el•ds r!f' demo(.'l'lll'.V i11
( 'hi11a:
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7'/,c• m(vssc:1• o( tlw soul .fhm1 tltt• Upm1isliml, 10 l'/<lro.
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/'a/..ist1111
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Murshull. S. J. (2002). '!11t• 11w11da/t• o(hca1•,•11: !Jidtl,•11
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i11i<'l'/ll'd11tio11 (/i'lim ,Wwm ro tlw pn•s1•11t dar/. (
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I iniwrsi1y Pre~,,
1
Term Paper Writing: Elements and documentation
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Different courses may have different requirements for the
writing of a term paper. You
need to find them out and comply with them. This website
introduces some
common principles and elements for a proper term paper.
Samples of standard
format of English and Chinese documentation are provided for
your reference.
1. Components of a Term Paper
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2
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i. Preliminaries
a. Title Page
b. Abstract (if required)
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ii. Text
a. Introduction
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c. Conclusion
iii. Reference Materials
a. Parenthetical Documentation
b. Notes (if any)
c. Appendix (if any)
d. English References
e. Chinese References
3
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i. the title of your paper
ii. your name and student number
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paper usually
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3. Guidelines for Text
3.1. Introduction
An introduction should be an interesting opening to show the
main theme and
specific topics of your paper. An introduction usually forms
through:
i. a concise and complete statement of your research question or
the
general purpose of your term paper.
ii. a justification for your study (the significance)
iii. a background to your research question and a review of the
relevant
literatures on it (literature review)
iv. a brief statement of the sources of data, the procedure or
methods of
analysis (methodology)
v. a preview of the organization of the paper
3.2. Main Body (Chapters or Sections)
Since the topics of term papers are so diverse, it is impossible
to give specific

indications of how to write the main body of a term paper. But,
the general rule
is that you must organize your presentation in a logical
framework with a clear
conceptual linkage among sections and give every point with
substantial support
from concrete source.
3.3. Conclusion
A conclusion should provide a firm ending of what you have
discussed in the
paper and, preferably, further to reach a judgment, to endorse
one side of an issue,
or to offer directives. A good conclusion usually contains:
i. a recapitulation of the main findings or main themes
ii. statements about the specific values or alternative insights of
your paper
for understanding the subject matter
iii. indications of the important relevance to the current
circumstance or
future possibility
iv. suggestions for policy in points to your findings
5
4. Guidelines for Reference Materials
Different institutions have developed different styles of

documentation. No
matter which one you use for your paper, the principle is to be
consistent. The
format system provided. Here comes from the American
Psychological
Association (APA system).
4.1. Parenthetical Reference
A term paper must have a clear documentation of all reference
materials used in
the text. This requires that your paper must indicate from
where you obtained:
i. direct quotations
ii. borrowed ideas (including paraphrases and summaries)
iii. data and cases (if they did not come through your own
research)
Sample:
i. One work by one author
If the author’s name appears in the text,
Walker (2000) compared reaction times
If not,
In a recent study of reaction times (Walker, 2000)
ii. One work by multiple authors
First citation in the text:
Wasserstein, Zappulla, Rosen, Gerstman, and Rock (1994)
found

First next citation in the text:
Wasserstien et al. (1994) found
iii. One work by group as author
Use the name of the group as the author
Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (1997) found
6
iv. Authors with the same surname
For one work by one author, show author’s initials in all text
citation:
R. D. Luce (1959) and P. A. Luce (1986) also found
For one work by multiple authors, show the first author’s
initials in all
text citation:
J. M. Goldberg and Neff (1961) and M. E. Goldberg and
Wurtz (1972) studied
v. Two or more works within the same parenthese
By different authors:
Several studies (Balda, 1980; Kamil, 1988; Pepperberg &
Funk, 1990)
By the same author:

Past research (Gogel, 1984, 1990)
By the same author in the same year:
Several studies (Johnson, 1991a, 1991b, 1991c)
vi. Specific parts of a source
One specific page:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, p.332)
More than one page:
(Cheek & Buss, 1981, pp. 332-333)
A specific chapter:
(Shimamura, 1989, chap.3)
7
4.2. Notes
The notes at the foot of each page are called as footnotes. The
notes at the end of
each chapter or at the end of the paper before other reference
materials are called
as endnotes. But, both formats and functions are the same.
i. Documentation notes
Footnotes or endnotes for reference documentation is seldom
used now.

In APA system, it is replaced by the parenthetical
documentation form.
If you would like to know how to use footnotes or endnotes for
reference documentation, see The research paper: Process, form,
and
content by Roth (1986, chap. 8) or Assignment and thesis
writing by
Anderson and Poole (2001, chap. 11).
ii. Content notes
However, it remains common to use footnotes or endnotes for
providing additional content in the text. Such footnotes or
endnotes
may:
a. include material which is not strictly relevant to the main
argument while yet is too important to be omitted.
b. explain, supplement, amplify material that is included in the
main text.
c. give cross-reference to other sections of a paper
4.3. Appendix
The purpose of appendix is to provide reader with detailed
information which
would be distracting to read in the main body of the paper.
Usually, the
information in an appendix is a large table, a long cross-
reference to the text, a
sample of a questionnaire or other survey instrument used in the
research.

If your paper has only one appendix, you should simply label it
Appendix; if
your paper has more than one appendix, you need to label each
one with a
capital letter (Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C, etc.)
4.4. English References
At the end of your paper, you must provide a reference list in an
alphabetical
order by the surname of the author. If you use the title
Bibliography, you can
list out both references cited in the text and the relevant works
which have
been consulted. If you use the title Reference, you should only
list out the
8
references cited in the text.
General forms:
i. Book reference
Author’s name. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher
ii. A chapter or an article in an edited book
Author’s name. (Year). Title of chapter or article. In Editor’s
name (Ed.), Title

of book (page numbers). Location: Publisher.
iii. Periodical (e.g., journal articles)
Author’s name. (Year). Title of article. Title of periodical,
Volume Number,
Page.
iv. Daily newspaper report or article
Heading of the report or the article. (year, month and date).
Title of the
newspaper, page.
Sample: Book reference
i. A reference to an entire book
Beck, C. A. J., & Sales, B. D. (2001). Family mediation: Facts,
myths, and
further prospects. Washington, DC: American Psychological
Association.
ii. Book in new edition (second, third, etc.)
Mitchell, T. R., & Larson, J. R. (1987). People in orga
nizations: An
introduction to organizational behavior (3rd ed.). New York:

Mcgraw-Hill.
iii. Edited book
Gibbs, J. T., & Huang, L.N. (Eds.). (1991). Children of color:
Psychological
interviews with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-bass.
iv. Translated work
Laplave, P. -S. (1951). A philosophical essay on probabilities
(F. W. Truscott &
F. L. Emory, Trans.). New York: Dover. (Original work
published 1814)
v. Book, group author as publisher
9
American Bureau of Statistics. (1991). Estimated resident
population by age
and sex in statistical area, New South Wales, June 1991 (No.
3209.1).
Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Author
Note. When the author and publisher are identical, use Author

as the
same of the publisher.
Sample: A chapter or an article in an edited book
Bjork, R. A. (1989). Retrieval inhibition as an adaptive
mechanism in human
memory. In H. L. Roediger III & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), Varieties
of memory
& consciousness (pp. 309-330). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Sample: Periodical
Mellers, B. A. (2000). Choice and the relative pleasure of
consequences.
Psychological Bulletin, 126, 910-924.
Sample: Daily newspaper report or article
New drug appears to sharply cut risk of death from heart
failure. (1993, July
15). The Washington Post, p. A12.
10

4.5. Chinese References
For paper written in Chinese, the format of reference
documentation used by
Chinese Social Science Quarterly (CSSQ System) is
recommended. The details
are as follows:
《中國社會科學季刊》注釋體例說明
注釋體例建制是學術研究規範代的一項重要內容，一方面，它表明作者對他人學
術著述的尊重，
以及自身從事研究的基點和依托；另一方面，亦有助於讀者查閱相關文獻，獲得
比較全面的信息；
故完整而準確的引文注釋，在學術研究和交流活動中具有不可忽視的作用和意義
。在國際學術交
流日趨頻繁之今日，建立一種規範化的注釋體例，對於中國社會科學的發展顯得
尤為迫切。
本刊願與廣大讀者/
作者一起從事這項建設性的活動。下面所述的格式，是本刊在參酌國內外有
關資料後擬釆用的注釋方式。自然，一種規範的形成，需要互動者的創造而非被
動的接受。我們
真誠歡迎廣大作者/ 讀者的 “參與”，在實踐中確立和完善學術研究的注釋規範。
一、著作引文注釋
統一規格：作者、書名、卷次、版本﹝出版社名、出版年份﹞、頁碼。

範例：
1. 徐民：《抗美援期的歷史回顧》，北京：中國廣播出版社 1990 年版，頁
5、7。
2. 柴成文、趙永田：《板門店談判》，上海：上海人民出版社 1989 年版，頁
5-9。
3.
﹝作者為三人以上﹞王永民等：《五筆字型輸入法》，石家莊：河北人民出版社
1992年版，
頁 5、8、12。
4.
﹝集體作者﹞軍事科學院軍史研究室：《朝鮮戰爭史話》，北京：解放軍出版社
1990年版，
頁 233。
5. 《魯迅全集》，卷
13﹝十以下用漢字表示，十以上用阿拉伯數字﹞，北京：人民文學出版
社 1991 年版，頁 9。
6. 《魯迅全集》，卷十，北京：人民文學出版社 1991 年版，頁 462、464。
編寫：
7. 陳忠龍主編：《論朝鮮戰爭》，南京：南京大學出版社 1991 年版，頁 2。
文選、選集：
8. 《毛澤東選集》卷二，北京：人民出版社 1970 年版，頁 2。

譯著：
9. 約瑟夫‧格登：《朝鮮戰爭》，於濱等譯，北京：解放軍出版社 1990
年版，頁 23。
原文著作：﹝書名排斜體﹞
10. Robert Gilpin, Economy of Internation Relations,
Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1986, p. 5.
11. Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, The Red World Order,
Chatham House
11
Publishers, 1993, pp.5-10.
二、文章引文注釋
統一規格：作者、文章題目、引自何種出版物、出版時間、頁碼。
範例：
著作中的文章：
1. 王民：“市場經濟理論”，張歌主編：《市場經濟論集》，北京：經濟出版社
1992 年版，頁
33-44。
期刊中的文章：

2.
鄧正來、景躍進：“建構中國的市民社會”，《中國社會科學季刊》﹝香港﹞199
2 年創刊
號，頁 18。
報紙上的文章：
3. 劉育寧：“克林頓政府經濟政策”，《人民日報》1993 年 3 月 23 日，第 6
版。
原文著作的文章：
4. Robert Arts, “Power”. J. Nye ed., Power, Cambridge: Harvard
University Press,
1988, pp. 23-35.
原文期刊中的文章：
5. Robert Gilpin, “War and Change”, International
Organization, Vol. 33, No. 4,
1993, pp. 45-55.
外國報紙上的文章：
6. Robert Knorr, “China: Third Economic Power”, New York
Times, June 10, 1992.
注釋統一放在文章尾處。

12
Selected bibliography
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication
manual of the American
Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Anderson, J., & Poole, M. (2001). Assignment and thesis
writing (4th ed.). New York:
Jon Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
Lester, J. D. (1990). Writing research papers: A complete guide
(6th ed.). New York:
Harper Collins.
Roth, A. J. (1986). The research paper: Process, form, and
content (5th ed.).
California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
8/18/2017 Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.h
tml 1/8
AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER - UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]"

16 April 1963
My Dear Fellow Clergymen:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across
your recent statement calling my present
activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer
criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to
answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries
would have little time for anything other than such
correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no
time for constructive work. But since I feel that
you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are
sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your
statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.
I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since
you have been influenced by the view which
argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of
serving as president of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every
southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the
South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian
Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff,
educational and financial resources with our affiliates.
Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to
be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct
action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily
consented, and when the hour came we lived up to
our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am
here because I was invited here. I am here
because I have organizational ties here.
But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is
here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C.

left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far
beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just
as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the
gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco
Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom
beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must
constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.
Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all
communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta
and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a
single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one
directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live
with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator"
idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be
considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.
You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham.
But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to
express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about
the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you
would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social
analysis that deals merely with effects and does not
grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that
demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is
even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left
the Negro community with no alternative.
In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps:
collection of the facts to determine whether injustices
exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have
gone through all these steps in Birmingham.
There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs
this community. Birmingham is probably the

most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly
record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have
experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have
been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes
and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the
nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On
the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate
with the city fathers. But the latter consistently
refused to engage in good faith negotiation.
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders
of Birmingham's economic community. In the
course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the
merchants--for example, to remove the stores'
humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the
tml 2/8
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a
moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks
and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a
broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed,
returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences,
our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of
deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative
except to prepare for direct action, whereby we
would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case
before the conscience of the local and the national
community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to
undertake a process of self purification. We

began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly
asked ourselves: "Are you able to accept blows
without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of
jail?" We decided to schedule our direct action
program for the Easter season, realizing that except for
Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year.
Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be
the by product of direct action, we felt that this
would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the
merchants for the needed change.
Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was
coming up in March, and we speedily decided to
postpone action until after election day. When we discovered
that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene
"Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off,
we decided again to postpone action until the day
after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to
cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to
see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured
postponement after postponement. Having aided in this
community need, we felt that our direct action program could be
delayed no longer.
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches
and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You
are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very
purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct
action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that
a community which has constantly refused to
negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to
dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My
citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the
nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must
confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have
earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of

constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to
create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from
the bondage of myths and half truths to the
unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so
must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to
create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from
the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the
majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose
of our direct action program is to create a
situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to
negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your
call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been
bogged down in a tragic effort to live in
monologue rather than dialogue.
One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I
and my associates have taken in Birmingham is
untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city
administration time to act?" The only answer that
I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham
administration must be prodded about as much as the
outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we
feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor
will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell
is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor,
they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the
status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be
reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to
desegregation. But he will not see this without
pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to
you that we have not made a single gain in civil
rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.
Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged
groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals
may see the moral light and voluntarily give up

their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us,
groups tend to be more immoral than
individuals.
We know through painful experience that freedom is never
voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be
demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a
direct action campaign that was "well timed" in
the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease
of segregation. For years now I have heard the
word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing
familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant
"Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished
jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice
denied."
tml 3/8
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional
and God given rights. The nations of Asia and
Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political
independence, but we still creep at horse and
buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter.
Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the
stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have
seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and
fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim;
when you have seen hate filled policemen curse,
kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see
the vast majority of your twenty million Negro
brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst

of an affluent society; when you suddenly find
your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to
explain to your six year old daughter why she
can't go to the public amusement park that has just been
advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her
eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored
children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning
to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort
her personality by developing an unconscious
bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an
answer for a five year old son who is asking:
"Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?";
when you take a cross county drive and find it
necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners
of your automobile because no motel will
accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by
nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when
your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes
"boy" (however old you are) and your last name
becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the
respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by
day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro,
living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing
what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer
resentments; when you are forever fighting a
degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand
why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a
time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no
longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair.
I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable
impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety
over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate
concern. Since we so diligently urge people to
obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing
segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may
seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One

may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking
some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that
there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I
would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not
only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just
laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey
unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that
"an unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one
determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just
law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the
law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of
harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St.
Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is
not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts
human personality is just. Any law that degrades
human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust
because segregation distorts the soul and
damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of
superiority and the segregated a false sense of
inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish
philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I it"
relationship for an "I thou" relationship and ends up relegating
persons to the status of things. Hence segregation
is not only politically, economically and sociologically
unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has
said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential
expression of man's tragic separation, his awful
estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge
men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme
Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey
segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.
Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust
laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or

power majority group compels a minority group to obey but
does not make binding on itself. This is difference
made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a
majority compels a minority to follow and that it is
willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal. Let me
give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is
inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right
to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the
law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up
that state's segregation laws was democratically
elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are
used to prevent Negroes from becoming
registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even
though Negroes constitute a majority of the
population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law
enacted under such circumstances be considered
democratically structured?
tml 4/8
Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application.
For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of
parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in
having an ordinance which requires a permit for a
parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to
maintain segregation and to deny citizens the
First-Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.
I hope you are able to see the distinction I am trying to point
out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying
the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to

anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so
openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I
submit that an individual who breaks a law that
conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the
penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the
conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality
expressing the highest respect for law.
Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil
disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal
of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of
Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral
law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early
Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the
excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to
certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a
degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates
practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the
Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil
disobedience.
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in
Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian
freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal"
to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany.
Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I
would have aided and comforted my Jewish
brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain
principles dear to the Christian faith are
suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's
antireligious laws.
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and
Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the
past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white
moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable

conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride
toward freedom is not the White Citizen's
Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who
is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who
prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a
positive peace which is the presence of justice; who
constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I
cannot agree with your methods of direct action";
who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for
another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical
concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait
for a "more convenient season." Shallow
understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than
absolute misunderstanding from people of ill
will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than
outright rejection.
I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law
and order exist for the purpose of establishing
justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the
dangerously structured dams that block the flow
of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would
understand that the present tension in the South is
a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative
peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his
unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all
men will respect the dignity and worth of human
personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct
action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring
to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring
it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt
with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered
up but must be opened with all its ugliness to
the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be
exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the
light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before

it can be cured.
In your statement you assert that our actions, even though
peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate
violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like
condemning a robbed man because his possession of
money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like
condemning Socrates because his unswerving
commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated
the act by the misguided populace in which
they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus
because his unique God consciousness and never
ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of
crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal
courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an
individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic
constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence.
Society must protect the robbed and punish the
robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject
the myth concerning time in relation to the
tml 5/8
struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white
brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know
that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but
it is possible that you are in too great a religious
hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to
accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ
take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic
misconception of time, from the strangely

irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time
that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time
itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or
constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill
will have used time much more effectively than have the people
of good will. We will have to repent in this
generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the
bad people but for the appalling silence of the
good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of
inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of
men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard
work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of
social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the
knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is
the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform
our pending national elegy into a creative psalm
of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from
the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock
of human dignity.
You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At first I
was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen
would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I
began thinking about the fact that I stand in the
middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is
a force of complacency, made up in part of
Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so
drained of self respect and a sense of
"somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in
part of a few middle-class Negroes who, because
of a degree of academic and economic security and because in
some ways they profit by segregation, have
become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other
force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes
perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the
various black nationalist groups that are springing

up across the nation, the largest and best known being Elijah
Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the
Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial
discrimination, this movement is made up of people
who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated
Christianity, and who have concluded that the
white man is an incorrigible "devil."
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we
need emulate neither the "do nothingism" of the
complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist.
For there is the more excellent way of love and
nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the
influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence
became an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had
not emerged, by now many streets of the South
would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further
convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as
"rabble rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ
nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to
support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of
frustration and despair, seek solace and security
in black nationalist ideologies--a development that would
inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.
Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The
yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and
that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something
within has reminded him of his birthright of
freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be
gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has
been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of
Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of
Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States
Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward
the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital

urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one
should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking
place. The Negro has many pent up resentments
and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him
march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city
hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he
must do so. If his repressed emotions are not
released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through
violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history.
So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent."
Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and
healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of
nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is
being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed
at being categorized as an extremist, as I
continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a
measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an
extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not
Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll
down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing
stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian
tml 6/8
gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was
not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I
cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I
will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make
a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This

nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And
Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that
all men are created equal . . ." So the question is
not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists
we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for
love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or
for the extension of justice? In that dramatic
scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never
forget that all three were crucified for the same
crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for
immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The
other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and
goodness, and thereby rose above his environment.
Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of
creative extremists.
I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need.
Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too
much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the
oppressor race can understand the deep groans
and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer
have the vision to see that injustice must be
rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am
thankful, however, that some of our white brothers
in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution
and committed themselves to it. They are still all
too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as
Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James
McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle--have
written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic
terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of
the South. They have languished in filthy, roach
infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen
who view them as "dirty nigger-lovers." Unlike so
many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have
recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the

need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of
segregation. Let me take note of my other major
disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the
white church and its leadership. Of course, there
are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that
each of you has taken some significant stands
on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your
Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming
Negroes to your worship service on a nonsegregated basis. I
commend the Catholic leaders of this state for
integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.
But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate
that I have been disappointed with the church. I
do not say this as one of those negative critics who can always
find something wrong with the church. I say this
as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was
nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its
spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the
cord of life shall lengthen.
When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus
protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years
ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt
that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the
South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have
been outright opponents, refusing to understand
the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too
many others have been more cautious than
courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing
security of stained glass windows.
In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the
hope that the white religious leadership of this
community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep
moral concern, would serve as the channel through

which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had
hoped that each of you would understand. But
again I have been disappointed.
I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their
worshipers to comply with a desegregation
decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white
ministers declare: "Follow this decree because
integration is morally right and because the Negro is your
brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted
upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the
sideline and mouth pious irrelevancies and
sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to
rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I
have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with
which the gospel has no real concern." And I have
watched many churches commit themselves to a completely
other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-
Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred
and the secular.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi
and all the other southern states. On sweltering
summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the
South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires
tml 7/8
pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of
her massive religious education buildings. Over
and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people

worship here? Who is their God? Where were their
voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of
interposition and nullification? Where were
they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance
and hatred? Where were their voices of support
when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise
from the dark dungeons of complacency to the
bright hills of creative protest?"
Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep
disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But
be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be
no deep disappointment where there is not deep
love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in
the rather unique position of being the son, the
grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the
church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have
blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and
through fear of being nonconformists.
There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the
time when the early Christians rejoiced at being
deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days
the church was not merely a thermometer that
recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a
thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in
power became disturbed and immediately sought to
convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and
"outside agitators."' But the Christians pressed on,
in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to
obey God rather than man. Small in number, they
were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be
"astronomically intimidated." By their effort and
example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide
and gladiatorial contests. Things are different

now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual
voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an
archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the
presence of the church, the power structure of
the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and
often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If
today's church does not recapture the sacrificial
spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the
loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an
irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.
Every day I meet young people whose
disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized
religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to
save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to
the inner spiritual church, the church within the
church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again
I am thankful to God that some noble souls
from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the
paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us
as active partners in the struggle for freedom. They have left
their secure congregations and walked the streets of
Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways
of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes,
they have gone to jail with us. Some have been dismissed from
their churches, have lost the support of their
bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith
that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.
Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the
true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times.
They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of
disappointment. I hope the church as a whole
will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the

church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no
despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of
our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives
are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom
in Birmingham and all over the nation, because
the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we
may be, our destiny is tied up with America's
destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here.
Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic
words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of
history, we were here. For more than two centuries
our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made
cotton king; they built the homes of their masters
while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation -and
yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to
thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery
could not stop us, the opposition we now face will
surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage
of our nation and the eternal will of God are
embodied in our echoing demands. Before closing I feel
impelled to mention one other point in your statement
that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the
Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and
"preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly
commended the police force if you had seen its
dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I
doubt that you would so quickly commend the
tml 8/8
policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane

treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were
to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young
Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick
old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as
they did on two occasions, refuse to give us
food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot
join you in your praise of the Birmingham police
department.
It is true that the police have exercised a degree of discipline in
handling the demonstrators. In this sense they
have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But
for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of
segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently
preached that nonviolence demands that the means we
use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make
clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to
attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong,
or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to
preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen
have been rather nonviolent in public, as was
Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the
moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral
end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last
temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed
for the wrong reason."
I wish you had commended the Negro sit inners and
demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage,
their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the
midst of great provocation. One day the South will
recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths,
with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to
face jeering and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness
that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They
will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a

Due April 16, 2020The final research paper for this class is.docx

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