Democractic virtues

I have been reading student essays reflecting upon what they learned about democracy from working in a small group to study a voluntary association.  They learned quite a lot, some of it familiar and some of it newer.

Perhaps my example, which mentioned methods of decision making, prompted the several comments about their ability to make decisions in these groups without voting.  This is fascinating.  So often a first effort to define democracy begins with a comment identifying voting as a key characteristic of democracy.  Two sorts of questions arose from the observation that the groups did not vote: 1) why not? and 2) then just how central is voting and majority rule to democracy?

Some students went on to note that individuals' ability to compromise one's own desires and interests for the benefit of the group's goals was central to their collective project.  Some even suggest that compromise is essential for democracy.  If that is so, then perhaps as important to democracy as the virtue of independence are others such as mutual regard and humility.  Where will citizens cultivate these virtues?  What is their basis?

Just as I've been reading these essays, I also read an article by a Chinese biblical scholar teaching in Chicago.  In his efforts to construct a sense of Chinese-ness that is not limited by geo-political factors and to determine how Chinese Christians might contribute to that sense, he drew upon both the Apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians and Confucius.  In doing so he proposed ways in which these two sources might inform contemporary life.  What struck me: that the Confucian virtues he identified seemed appropriate to the work of democracy!