Confucian Welfarism: Intellectual Origins of Solidarity for Health and Welfare Systems.

This article examines the concept of solidarity as the ethical foundation for health and welfare systems in East Asian societies influenced by Confucianism, using Taiwan as a case study. It argues that traditional Confucian ethics—centered on filial piety, benevolent governance, and the mandate of heaven—primarily support a family-based, differentiated solidarity that limits care responsibilities within blood kinship. The author proposes a transformed interpretation called "Confucian welfarism," which reimagines these Confucian ideals to extend solidarity from the family to the entire democratic polity by replacing the mandate of heaven with the mandate of the people and envisioning benevolent representatives accountable to popular sovereignty. This model aims to reconcile Confucian values with modern liberal-democratic welfare arrangements, offering a culturally grounded intellectual resource for solidarity in health and welfare systems in Confucian-influenced democratic societies.