参与式民主的理论与价值

参与式民主是西方发达国家民主发展的新趋向,主张民主不仅是一种政治制度,更是一种生活方式,自由和个人的发展只能依靠公民在社会和国家事务中直接地不断地参与才能实现。参与式民主在代议制民主的基础上要求扩大直接民主的有效范围,丰富民主政治的合理内核,符合民主直接化的要求,代表着当代社会政治生活从精英民主趋向大众民主的发展方向。     

试论民主的价值——以多数人统治和少数人统治的辨析为基点

民主的基本价值不仅在于追求多数人的统治,在社会主义制度建立之前,历史上从来就没有存在过多数人统治的政体;民主的基本价值也不在于选举领导人,选举只是制度层面而不是价值层面的问题。民主的真实价值在于,通过确认国家主权属于全体人民,即确认全体人民对于国家最高权力的所有权,确立由人民授权代表人民行使国家权力的"政治精英"对于全体人民的政治责任制,以实现人民群众对国家权力行使的监督和社会财富由全体人民共享。     

分离与弥合:西方民主的本义和实践

民主,在西方历史上受到持久而漫长的批评,并在近代以来也曾不断地被仿冒.但民主一词的西方本义是"人民的统治",近代以来西方学者和政治操作者也都受到这一理解的影响.但是,西方民主的理论和实践,同西方的民主本义之间却一直存在着人们试图弥合而又始终难以弥合的背离、矛盾和冲突,如:谁是人民?人民能够直接统治吗?民主是多数人的统治吗?怎样的"多数"才算"有效的多数"?代议机构及其成员能充分代表和体现民意吗?近代以来的西方社会正是在主动或被动地破解这些诸多难题中,形成各种民主理论流派,并在总体上推动民主实践的不断发展.     

浅析政治精英与人民民主的关系

在民主化进程中,政治精英与人民民主之间在含义、特质界定,作用范围等方面各不相同,但是二者并不是相互排斥的,它们之间也有相联系的一面。只有将政治精英与人民民主相结合才能更好地促进民主进程的发展。     

从代议制民主到参与式民主——网络政治参与对民主政治形式的发展

民主政治是评价国家与社会发展的一个重要标志。总体来说,民主政治分为两大类:直接民主和代议制民主。现代社会由于规模性和复杂性等问题,直接民主难以在国家体制层面上存在,基本上实行的是代议制民主制度。代议制民主是现代民主政治的基本形式,但也不可避免地存在一些问题和缺陷,并且随着实践的发展,它越来越暴露出自身难以克服的局限性。参与式民主不失为解决代议制民主缺陷的一条途径,而网络政治参与为其发展提供了动力和契机,将成为网络时代民主形式发展的新方向。     

中国民主模式的理论表述问题

以学术讲政治很重要，概念表达很重要，意识形态的社会科学化极端重要，二战后的20年内美国完成了自由主义的社会科学化，使受众以为自由主义民主就是科学乃至普世价值。研究发现，无论是作为自由主义内核的代议制、个人权利和多元主义，还是作为民主实践形式的竞争性选举，都是中世纪发展起来的欧洲文明的组成部分，自由主义民主是欧洲文明的政治表达。社会主义民主—民主集中制—协商共识型民主—可治理的民主，构成了以人民民主为价值原则的中国模式。中国的民主模式只能用诞生于中国历史文化的政治学方法论——历史政治学进行阐释。     

试析资本主义民主政治的多数规则及其困境

多数规则作为资本主义民主政治的制度基础有着特定的假设前提。从某种意义而言,在本质上涉及统治权的分配;从多数规则到多数统治再到多数暴政的理论推定在逻辑上基于多数与少数区分的固定化,以及无限制的多数权威与政治权力的结合;在以多数至上和平等主义为原则的民主中,可能会造成多数对少数的剥夺,但在资本主义民主政治中,代议制使得多数统治间接化与形式化,实际上存在的是少数精英以多数的名义实施的少数暴政。多数规则在资本主义代议民主中的真正困境始终是关于平等与自由的价值冲突。     

阿伦特的政治思想是精英主义的吗?——从谢尔顿·沃林对阿伦特的批评谈起

在对阿伦特政治思想的批评中,有一种是对于阿伦特"精英主义"的批评,其代表人物是美国政治学家谢尔顿·沃林。在谢尔顿·沃林看来,阿伦特的政治思想是"反民主"的,而阿伦特本人就是一个典型的"精英主义者"。笔者认为,谢尔顿·沃林在两个方面曲解了阿伦特的政治思想,其一,他片面化的解释了阿伦特政治行动的内涵,仅仅强调政治行动的"显现"维度,而忽略了政治行动的"交流"维度,其二,他并没有看到阿伦特将"政治"与"社会"区分中所表达出的政治内在的民主结构,因而错误的将阿伦特归入了西方精英主义政治的传统模式之中。在笔者来看,阿伦特的"政治行动"理论构建的是一种全新的精英主义的模式,即"人民的精英主义",这种精英主义是阿伦特意义上一种特殊的精英主义,它一方面可以提升政治的大众参与,保障政治权力的自我发生,另一方面也可以促进政治精英的自我遴选,保证政治决策的不断修正和更新。从这个意义上,正如毛里奇奥·帕瑟林·邓特里弗所说,阿伦特是处在一种特殊的"民主"与"精英"之张力的政治结构中,在我们看来,阿伦特既是一个"自由的民主主义者",也是一个"人民的精英主义者"。     

从马克思主义“真正的民主”看当代中国民主建设

马克思主义所设想的最真正的民主是由民主的本义升华而出的，是真正体现“人民统治”的一种人类社会美好的政治前景。其应然状态要求摆脱代议制的束缚，人人都独立的享有社会的直接管理权，直至不需要任何人的管理，实现人人自主。“真正的民主”的实现分为三个阶段，中国实际上正处于“真正的民主”的第一个阶段向第二个阶段过渡的时期。其建设方向应该是继续完善国家政治体制和相关的政治制度，同时发展基层民主，培育个人的民主素养，并在上述条件成熟之时，稳步推进政府角色的转变。     

党内民主对人民民主的示范和带动作用分析——学习十六大报告的点滴体会

发展社会主义民主政治是我国现代化建设的基本目标之一,选择什么样的路径实现这一目标是问题的关键所在。党的十六大做出了以党内民主示范和带动人民民主的战略部署与具体安排。以党内民主示范和带动人民民主符合中国政治发展的历史逻辑,但是,党内民主和人民民主是界域不同的民主,我们不能把示范和带动理解为人民民主是党内民主的简单延伸与放大,只有从中国特色、民主制度化、人民的主体地位和政治文明的视角审视示范和带动,才能正确理解它的深刻涵义。     

Education and support for representative,direct and stealth democracy

Using data collected within the scope of a Dutch internet panel survey (LISS) in 2011, this study tracks public support for direct, stealth and representative democracy according to educational level. Our findings indicate that, in terms of overall support for each specific type of democracy, lower educated citizens are significantly more supportive of stealth and direct democracy than highly educated citizens. While the mean levels of support for representative democracy do not differ significantly between levels of education, multivariate OLS regression analyses show that lower educated citizens are noticeably more supportive of representative democracy once political efficacy, trust and satisfaction are introduced. When contrasting the different types of democracy directly with one another, we find that lower educated citizens have a greater tendency to prefer direct and (to a lesser extent) stealth democracy over representative democracy than higher educated citizens. Multivariate OLS regression analyses indicate that most of these educational gaps cease to be significant once the lower levels of political efficacy, trust and satisfaction of lower educated citizens are taken into account. Implications of these results for the debate on the functioning of democracy are discussed.     

公民参与式民主理论的拓展——异体问责的视角

公民参与式民主能够完善异体问责的理论和发展路径,而异体问责作为公民参与式民主的重要体现,能够为公民参与式民主的发展提供新视角。公民参与式民主理论强调公民与政府的双向互动,公民可以通过制度保证对政府管理进行监督问责,政府必须对公民监督问责做出积极回应并改善行政管理。民主模式从古希腊城邦的直接民主发展到近现代的代议制民主,20世纪中后期,随着时代的发展和科技的进步,参与式民主理论在对代议制民主的批判和重构中逐渐发展成熟。在该理论指导下的参与式民主实践逐步深入,从而加强了公民作为政府异体问责主体的地位,在具体实践中体现为宏观领域的行政民主、中观领域的电子民主、微观领域的工业民主。     

Stumbling block or stepping stone? The influence of direct democracy on individual participation in parliamentary elections

This paper evaluates whether direct democracy supplements or undermines traditional representative democracy. While a first approach assumes that a culture of active direct democracy stimulates citizens’ political interest and ultimately bolsters participation in parliamentary elections, a competing hypothesis proposes a negative relationship between the frequency of ballot measures and electoral participation due to voter fatigue and decreased significance of elections. Our multilevel analysis of the 26 Swiss cantons challenges recent studies conducted for the U.S. states: In the Swiss context, where direct democracy is more important in the political process than the less salient parliamentary elections, greater use of direct democratic procedures is associated with a lower individual probability to participate in elections. Furthermore, by distinguishing between short and long-term effects of direct democracy, we show that the relationship observed is of a long-term nature and can therefore be seen as a result of adaptive learning processes rather than of instantaneous voter fatigue.     

How representative are referendums? Evidence from 20 years of Swiss referendums

Direct democracy allows citizens to reverse decisions made by legislatures and even initiate new laws which parliaments are unwilling to pass, thereby, as its proponents argue, leading to more representative policies than would have obtained under a purely representative democracy. Yet, turnout in referendums is usually lower than in parliamentary elections and tends to be skewed towards citizens of high socio-economic status. Consequently, critics of direct democracy argue that referendum outcomes may not be representative of the preferences of the population at large. We test this assertion using a compilation of post-referendum surveys encompassing 148 national referendums held in Switzerland between 1981 and 1999. Uniquely, these surveys also asked non-voters about their opinion on the referendum's subject. Comparing opinion majorities in the surveys against actual referendum outcomes we show that representativeness increases slightly in turnout as well as over time. However, we find only few cases where the outcome would have been more representative even under full turnout vis-a vis a counterfactual representative outcome. Thus, our results are in line with research on the turnout effect in elections: Higher turnout would not radically change the outcome of votes. On balance we find more cases where referendums provided more representative outcomes than cases where the outcome was unrepresentative vis-a-vis representative democracy. Hence, we conclude that, overall, direct democracy seems to improve representation in Switzerland.     

Democracy in Britain: Retrospect and Prospect

The EU referendum has raised questions about the nature of democracy, which is not just majority rule. It is wrong to claim that direct democracy has now replaced representative democracy, as Parliament is required to answer all the questions that the referendum did not. The conduct of the referendum reflected the worst aspects of Britain's political culture of sterile adversarialism. Both left and right have shared assumptions about governing that have made it difficult to develop a culture of democratic citizenship. The political system still reflects its pre‐democratic origins (as in the survival of a House of Lords and the obsession with titles) and the role of money in politics represents a form of corruption. Institutional reforms depend for their success on the nurturing of a democratic culture, which is a task for many hands.     

完善民主评议政风行风制度的对策思考

政风行风是政府和行业的生命,政风行风的好坏直接关系当地政府的形象。民主评议政风行风对于纠正部门和行业不正之风,促进依法行政,推进党风廉政建设,优化政务环境,构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要意义。完善民主评议政风行风制度,应从确立多方参与机制,增强评议的代表性和权威性、建立统一规范的评议制度,形成评议体系、完善客观公正的评议方法,优化评议过程、开展严格细致的评议考核,巩固评议效果、构筑立体监督机制,推行"阳光评议"等方面进行。     

Crisis of political parties and representative democracies: rethinking parties in associational,experimentalist governance

The contrast between the normative functions of political parties in representative democracies and their empirical working is stark and rapidly increasing. This article starts from a sober, realist account of the empirical state of affairs and from structural problems of democracy and participations – in terms of limits of time, information, qualification and relevant expertise – that have to be acknowledged by any realist–utopian proposal of alternatives beyond the exclusive alternative of ‘thin, realist democracy’ or emphatic ‘strong, participatory, direct, or mass democracy’. We can do better. My search for institutional alternatives looks not for the replacement of political parties but for their relief. Many, not all, of their normative tasks can be shared with other functional networks, associations and organizations. In exploring such a new division of political labour I draw on older debates and designs of associative democracy and on recent discussions to democratize expertise and to expertise democracy in order to address urgent societal problems of high-risk decisions under conditions of extreme complexity, contingency, unpredictability and uncertainty and deep contestedness of our knowledge, problems that turn out to be unmanagable by party politics and representative democracy.     

Right‐wing populist party supporters: Dissatisfied but not direct democrats

Right‐wing populist parties tend to combine criticism of how liberal democracy functions with calls for greater direct democracy. But do their voters share that support for direct democracy? In this article, survey data is used to examine, first, whether right‐wing populist candidates in Australia, Canada and New Zealand were more supportive of direct democracy than candidates of other parties. Second, the views of right‐wing populist voters about the functioning of democracy and direct democracy are investigated. While right‐wing populist candidates turned out to be far more likely to support direct democracy, right‐wing populist supporters did not mirror the candidates. Although these were among the most dissatisfied with how democracy worked, they did not necessarily favour referendums more than other voters. The findings have implications both for how we conceive of the relationship between populism and direct democracy and the remedies proposed for redressing populist discontent.     

民主是社会主义固有的东西——马克思主义政治学学习笔记

在马克思主义经典作家那里,民主是社会主义的本质属性,是无产阶级和人民群众的原则,更是无产阶级政党的旗帜,甚至某种程度上说,民主就是社会主义。社会主义民主重在实践,没有民主的实践就不可能有社会主义,而社会主义国家如果不实行充分的民主,就不能保证它所取得的胜利。社会主义民主的切实落实必须要有制度保障,其中废除干部职务终身制和在适当的时候实行普选制是两项关键举措。     

再论以党内民主推进社会民主——关于党内民主的几个问题

以党内民主推进社会民主,应看作是中国进行渐进性政治体制改革的合理路径选择,是符合中国实际情况,代价最小收益最大,最能获得各方面认同而形成最大共识的改革方案。但如何发展党内民主,目前仍有不少问题,如党内民主的可能性问题,党内民主建设的顺序问题,对民主集中制的理解问题,如何有效保障党员的民主权利问题,我们都需要进行认真地讨论,其中一些错误的观念也需要澄清。