Seeking a second opinion, I called up Zach’s friend, Tom Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago School of Law. Tom’s a cool dude. He’s written books like Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes (2014), co-directs the Comparative Constitutions Project with Zach, served as a legal adviser at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, The Hague, Netherlands, and has two grown children. Tom was like, “Zach said that? Naaaah. What the hell does the House of Saud do for its people?” Tom suggests Singapore. “It’s a very paternalistic society,” he says, “but at least provides what we call ‘public goods’ for their citizens.”

He points that that Singapore’s Constitution, like China’s, incorporates the Confucian notion of governance in which the principle unit is the family. “It sees us not as individuals but as embedded in our societies.,” he explains, “And the family is the most important set of relationships.” Of course, there’s a whole lot of caning that goes on in Singapore as well as mandatory death sentences, things I try to avoid in my family, but Tom, to a degree, puts this in perspective. “The punishments are harsh because when you harm someone else, you aren’t just harming them but you are putting everyone in danger. The harmony of the society has to be protected.” That applies, and is perhaps distilled, within a family unit. And, as Tom notes, “Confucius himself thought everyone should be rehabilitated. He was against the death penalty.”

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