Better Leadership: Why Legalism Should Not be Applied in the Context of a College Fraternity

Legalism, “Fa Jia” or “school of law,” was the utilitarian political philosophy with Han Fei Zi as its major proponent.  The legalists argued that the best government is one based on authoritarian control, not ethical or moral persuasion.  They claimed that human nature was incurably selfish and that people normally do not know what to do.  Thus, the only way to preserve the social order (and society) was to impose strict discipline from above and enforce laws strictly.  For example, if your father or your husband disobeyed the government in a small infraction, such as lying, you were morally obligated to report him to the officials and let the officials punish him.

Legalism was utilized in history with effective results and long-lasting accomplishments.  The first person to use this philosophy after the Zhou Dynasty was Qin Shi Huang Di, “The First Emperor.”  Through legalism, he gained very fearful and law-abiding citizens who did not dare to do anything against his decrees.  Despite the “reign of terror” that he created, his short fifteen year reign is one of the most well-known and widely discussed., especially his legacy of “The Great Wall of China” and “The Terracotta Warriors.”  Another famous example in history is the person who started communism in China, Mao Zedong.  He often used legalism to justify his actions for the “good of the nation.”

Proper application of legalism in a fraternity would be beneficial and minimize the inter-fraternity conflicts, particularly personality clashes among the members that have led to factions within the fraternity.  The fraternity can preserve the social order by imposing discipline through the leader and having the leader strictly enforce the laws.  The fraternity would benefit from the implementation of two tools.

1.       “Fa” is the law or principle. The laws of the fraternity must be clearly stated and written for all of the members to see.  The law would allow the good members to be awarded and the bad members that break the rules of law to be punished.

2.       “Shu” is a method, tactic, or art.  Shu would allow the fraternity to gain a bureaucratic administration under the control of the leader and would allow the leader to enforce the laws and perform the task of running the fraternity. (New World Encyclopedia)  

Actually, the members of the executive board in one fraternity that I know of have already been utilizing some forms of legalism, but the intra-fraternity conflicts have not dissipated, at least in part because the fraternity has not properly used legalism for both “Fa” and “Shu.”  With respect to “Fa,” the fraternity has laws but the laws are not always clearly written and publicly known to the whole fraternity.  With respect to “Shu”, the fraternity lacks a true bureaucratic administration because the leader lacks the ability to remain aloof and conceal his personal intentions and because the fraternity does not have strong laws to provide the primary model of behavior for the fraternity.