Scholar Li Zhongxian: Personality of politicians is important, but system is the last line of defense

Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang of the Democratic Progressive Party held a pop-up event in Ximending on the evening of the 23rd and held a "Mayor, listen to me!" physical interactive soap box event. Faced with citizens' concerns about "pre-election expectations and post-election disappointments," he stressed that he would work hard to maintain his original intentions and has withstood the test in the past. If he deviates from his belief in the country and personal values ​​in the future, everyone is asked to criticize. In this regard, scholar Li Zhongxian said that he felt that the more important thing in Shen Boyang's answer was not "please believe in my personality", but the part where he discussed the system later. He emphasized that systems and norms should be established to make corruption, corruption, privileges, and conflicts of interest less likely to occur. These two answers look similar, but behind them are two completely different thoughts.

Li Zhongxian said in a Facebook post that a member of the public asked Shen Boyang a question: In Taiwan, everyone has had a common confusion over the years. We originally had high expectations for a political figure, but will we be disappointed later? Corruption, corruption, enjoyment of privileges, and even complete changes in core values. In recent years, we have often seen such things, and have experienced the feeling of betrayal by politicians again and again. So this question is ostensibly asking Shen Boyang, but it is actually asking a bigger question: If we trust a person today, will we be disappointed again in a few years?

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Li Zhongxian pointed out that Shen Boyang said that this was the most difficult question to answer that day. What I found interesting was that his answer had two levels. The first one is, of course, his past personality development, life experience and professional training. In other words, you can judge what kind of person a person may become in the future from his past. When many politicians encounter this kind of question, they will probably answer this way: You have to believe me, what I was like in the past, what I insisted on along the way, my personality can prove that I will not change in the future. What is really interesting is: does a person have the ability to supervise himself? But the more important thing in Shen Boyang's answer is actually not "please believe in my personality", but the part that talks about the system later. He emphasized that systems and norms should be established to make corruption, corruption, privileges, and conflicts of interest less likely to occur. These two answers look similar, but behind them are two completely different thoughts. The first one asks: "How do we find a good person to hold power?" The second one asks: "What if this good person changes one day?"

Li Zhongxian continued that from classical republicanism to modern democratic politics, this has always been a very important issue. Of course we hope that politicians will be virtuous, temperate, responsible, and public-spirited, but a mature political system cannot pin the fate of the entire country on the personalities of a few people, because people will change, the environment will change, interests will change, and power will change a person. The really important thing about the democratic system is not that it can guarantee that we will always elect a saint, but that it does not need to assume that the person in power is a saint at all. This is the reason for the existence of the system. Of course we hope that politicians are good people, but the more important question in politics is not "Is this person a good person now?" but "If this person changes one day, do we have any way to restrict him?" A good system should make the cost of corruption very high, make conflicts of interest necessary to be exposed, make power subject to supervision, make violations of law possible to be investigated, and make it difficult to hide privileges. In other words, what we really need is not a person who will never become bad, but a system in which even if a person becomes bad, it is not so easy to do bad things. So that citizen asked Shen Boyang, "Will you change in the future?" In fact, no one could really answer.

Li Zhongxian analyzed that, let alone Shen Boyang, none of us can guarantee ourselves in ten years. What we should really ask is: If he really changes one day, can the system restrict him? If any politician we support today betrays his promise one day, do we have the ability to investigate him, restrict him, and finally take back power? Personality is of course important, but the system cannot be based on the assumption that personality will never change. Personality is the first line of defense, and the system is the last line of defense. When I saw someone criticizing Shen Boyang for being narcissistic, Li Zhongxian was actually not very interested in this kind of personality judgment. Excellent, smart, and confident people sometimes tend to give others such feelings, but what was more concerning was that there was another thing revealed in his answer: "He will be afraid of himself."

Li Zhongxian added that this matter is indeed not that easy. He feels that this is a very important trait of a person who holds power. The real danger is not necessarily the person who knows that he may make a mistake, but the person who believes that he is always right, so he feels that supervision, procedures and systems are redundant. The most difficult thing for smart and excellent people is not how outstanding their performance can be, but whether they have the means to reflect on themselves.

Li Zhongxian pointed out that self-reflection is an internal system, while a democratic system is an external self-reflection. A truly introspective person will not think that he does not need to be supervised just because he believes that he is a good person; on the contrary, it is precisely because he knows that he is also a human being, that he may make mistakes, find excuses for himself, and slowly become another person in power, so he is willing to accept the system to limit himself. Perhaps it is not that we have finally found someone who "will never let us down," but that we finally no longer expect to find such a person. The purpose of politics is not to find a person who is always worthy of trust, but to establish a system so that even if one day we trust the wrong person, that person will not be so easy to do evil.

Li Zhongxian bluntly said that instead of asking: "Can I always trust this politician?" Now I am more willing to ask: "When one day I no longer believe in him, can our system still protect us?" Perhaps this is the question that the people really asked, and it is also the most difficult question to answer in democratic politics.