FYI, Sam Crane has a post going on whether the Daodejing has any democracy-friendly ideals in it; just below that post, there is also one on whether the Daodejing could be construed as a consequentialist text. Over here: http://www.uselesstree.typepad.com/
Warp, Weft, and Way
Chinese and Comparative Philosophy 中國哲學與比較哲學
For archival purposes, the permalinks to those posts are http://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2008/02/is-the-tao-te-1.html and http://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2008/02/is-the-tao-te-c.html