The Chinese philosopher Confucius believed that governments should:

Confucius believed competent and honorable scholars should have government positions. Also, he believed political disaster could be ended if people do their jobs well and if government be honorable and not stressing over building an army. Confucius also believed that rulers did not need to use force to return harmony to society. Confucius said: "If you govern them by means of virtue (de) and keep order among them by ritual (li), people will gain their own sense of shame and correct themselves."

He had faith in the cumulative power of culture. The fact that traditional ways had lost vitality did not, for him, diminish their potential for regeneration in the future. In fact, Confucius's sense of history was so strong that he saw himself as a conservationist responsible for the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms that had worked so well for the idealized civilization of the Western Zhou dynasty.