全过程人民民主：理论逻辑与制度路径

"全过程人民民主"重大理念是关于中国特色人民民主鲜明特质、显著优势与实现形态等方面的集中论述,进一步指明了人民民主发展的目标和要求。全过程人民民主是在马克思主义民主思想、中国特色人民民主理论和习近平关于新时代中国特色社会主义民主政治发展的思想基础上确立和发展的。在中央人大工作会议上,习近平对全过程人民民主及其深刻内涵进行了全面系统阐述,这些重要论述成为中国特色社会主义民主理论的最新发展成果,对中国特色社会主义民主政治建设具有根本的指导意义。在当代中国,全过程人民民主实践需要坚持和完善中国共产党领导制度、人民当家作主制度、全面依法治国制度和社会主义经济制度,并在这套制度体系基础上不断发展和完善,向最终实现人的自由而全面发展的目标推进。     

理论、历史与实践：政治监督的三重逻辑

从理论看,政治监督是与特定政治制度相适应并为其服务的制度安排,遵循权力制约监督的内在生成逻辑,推动掌握和行使权力的权力机构及其成员聚焦党的政治属性、政治使命、政治目标、政治追求,着力发现并纠正政治方面的突出问题,确保党的政治纲领、政治路线、政治目标的贯彻执行和有效推进。从历史看,政治监督古已有之,中国古代通过监察官员执行法令、忠诚履职,达到去疴除弊、整肃纲纪、彰善瘅恶、稳定朝政的目标;西方社会通过分权和制衡来遏制权力滥用、维护公民权利、保证政体稳定;社会主义国家的无产阶级政党通过加强政治建设,完善党内监督,保证人民当家作主,实现党和国家长治久安。从实践看,近年来的实践探索成效初显,但是在政治监督的认识、定位、方法及人员队伍能力素质方面存在薄弱环节,还需持续探索政治监督的有效路径。     

Development and Prospects of Deliberative Democracy in China: The Dimensions of Deliberative Capacity Building

Since the landmark volume The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China (Leib and He eds. 2006), a growing number of theoretical and empirical studies in the context of China have advanced our knowledge of deliberative democracy in comparative settings. This paper aims to discuss the recent development and prospects of deliberative democracy in China, with particular focus on the approach of a deliberative system that has not been adequately addressed in the context of China. This paper proposes an analytical framework for the concept of deliberative capacity building in the context of contemporary China. The paper analyses three dimensions of deliberative capacity building: social capacity, institutional capacity; and participatory capacity of a deliberative system. The three dimensions lay particular emphasis on the public sphere, empowered space, and deliberative actors respectively. The multi-dimensional framework considers deliberative capacity building as a process by which the three dimensions synergize and evolve with each other to produce a functional deliberative system incorporating isolated deliberative practices. The multi-dimensional analyses suggest that deliberative capacity building is critical to democratization in China, as it produces a stronger public sphere, more effective government responsiveness and improved participatory competence.     

《新民主主义论》文本的逻辑进路

毛泽东1940年发表的《新民主主义论》,是中国化马克思主义的经典文献。就文本视域而言,《新民主主义论》有着独特的逻辑进路:一方面,立足于中国社会来分析新民主主义革命,呈现出从"社会性质"到"革命性质"的叙述模式;另一方面,又在"世界革命"视域中审视"中国革命",凸显新民主主义革命的世界背景和时代特征;同时,还在无产阶级的双重使命的解读中,成就新民主主义理论体系中的"革命论"与"社会论"的内涵,表征出中国的社会变革中"革命"与"建设"的有机统一。《新民主主义论》文本为推进马克思主义与中国新民主主义实践的有机结合作出了创造性的理论探索,其逻辑进路不仅谱写出马克思主义中国化的光辉篇章,而且也铸就了内涵丰富、特色鲜明的中国化马克思主义的话语体系和运行机制,并使中国化马克思主义有着鲜明的时代特征和民族特色。     

The Limits of Design: Explaining Institutional Origins and Change

Political scientists have paid much more attention to the effects of institutions than to issues of institutional origins and change. One result has been a marked tendency to fall back on implicit or explicit functional accounts, in which the effects of institutions explain the presence of those institutions. Institutional effects may indeed provide part of such an explanation. Yet the plausibility of functional accounts depends upon either a set of favorable conditions at the design stage or the presence of environments conducive to learning or competition. Exploring variability in the relevant social contexts makes it possible to both establish the restricted range of functional accounts and specify some promising lines of inquiry into the subject of institutional origins and change.     

协商民主视野下的人民政协制度建设

以协商民主理论为参照,分析中国人民政治协商制度框架中已有制度的特点和应有制度之建设,从中可获得若干启发:即协商民主所追求的价值理念与人民政协制度建设的理念相契合;协商民主所期望的实践成果在人民政协制度建设中有具体体现;协商民主所引发的广泛讨论为中国人民政治协商制度建设改革提供了民意基础。     

基层协商民主的制度优势转化为治理效能的现实路径

我国悠久的协商思想为基层协商民主奠定了政治文化之基,而新时代则赋予了基层协商民主以新的内涵和实质。基层协商民主的演进发展之路,不断凸显出基层协商民主的制度优势。基层协商民主是实现党的领导的重要方式,是实现我国社会主义民主政治的独特形式,是推进基层社会治理现代化的重要力量,体现出我国国家制度和国家治理体系的显著优势。把基层协商民主制度优势转化为治理效能的现实路径有:坚持党对基层协商民主的领导,更好发挥基层协商民主的制度优势;加强基层协商民主制度建设,强化基层协商民主制度执行力;加强基层协商民主制度自信宣传教育,培养人们积极参与基层协商的意识;建设高素质基层协商人才队伍,为把基层协商民主制度优势转化为治理效能提供人才支撑。     

Social Capital and Local Governance: Exploring the Institutional Design Variable

This article argues that Robert Putnam's social capital thesis is too society-centred and undervalues state agency and associated political factors. It explores the role of institutional design in explaining how governments can shape the development of social capital and its potential influence upon democratic performance. New Labour's programme of 'democratic renewal' within British local government provides an excellent opportunity to assess the relevance of institutional design to arguments about social capital and democracy. We propose that prospects for the creation and mobilization of social capital may depend as much upon the process as the content of institutional design.     

Democracy as a Tragic Regime: Democracy and its Cancellation

Abstract

To see "democracy as a tragic regime", as Cornelius Castoriadis did, is to recognize the ever-present risk of democracy's cancellation, but it also means to emphasize the anti-democratic nature of such cancellation, thus its incompatibility with democracy. In the context of this understanding of democracy, the article takes the political to consist of those relations among people and among institutions within the polis, which aim at deciding the polis' fate. It takes the social to be those relations among people and among institutions within the polis, to whom such decisions about the polis' fate apply and whom they create. If democracy is understood as tension between the two, then the relation between those who decide and those who are the subject of the decision is never entirely pacified - hence, always contested and in need of specification. Using the examples of the state of exception and totalitarianism (temporary and permanent self-cancellation), the article argues that these situations are outside a linear continuation with the democratic phenomenon and are due to a displacement, which is akin to the hubristic displacement.     

民主恳谈是基层民主政治建设的创新与发展——以浙江温岭的实践为例

基层民主政治建设是推进我国社会主义民主政治建设的基础性工程.改革开放以来,我国基层民主政治建设取得了许多理论成果、制度成果和实践成果,民主恳谈就是一种典型的、富有中国特色的基层民主形式.提升基层民主恳谈的效果,需要积极创造有利于化解各种矛盾的交往语境,保持政府公共信息的公开性与透明性,加强基层民主恳谈的规范化、法治化建设,积极培育公民的自治意识和参政能力.     

协商民主:社会主义民主的重要实现形式

民主的本质在于人民当家作主。选举民主顺利地实现了人民对政府更替的控制,有利于实现人民当家作主,但选举并不等于民主,选举民主也有其内在的局限。协商民主在承认和反思选举民主的基础上应运而生,它有助于使民主更加完美,也是我国实现社会主义民主的重要途径。     

Democracy in an Age of Tragedy: Democracy,Tragedy and Paradox

Abstract

Democracy and tragedy captured a delicate poise in ancient Athens. While many today perceive democracy as a finite, unquestionable and almost procedural form of governance that glorifies equality and liberty for their own sake, the Athenians saw it as so much more. Beyond the burgeoning equality and liberty, which were but fronts for a deeper goal, finitude, unimpeachability and procedural norms were constantly contradicted by boundlessness, subversion and disarray. In such a world, where certainty and immortality were luxuries beyond the reach of humankind, tragedy gave comfort and inspired greatness. The purpose of this article is to draw explicit links between democracy, tragedy and paradox. Given that tragedy's political ascendancy coincided with the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, we may assume that democracy was somehow, if not implicitly, tragic. But what was it that made democracy and tragedy speak so intimately to each other and to the Athenians who created them? The answer, at least the one which this article entertains, is paradox.     

Learning to Love Democracy: Electoral Accountability and the Success of Democracy

This article explains why dissatisfaction with the performance of individual politicians in new democracies often turns into disillusionment with democracy as a political system. The demands on elections as an instrument of political accountability are much greater in new than established democracies: politicians have yet to form reputations, a condition that facilitates the entry into politics of undesirable candidates who view this period as their “one‐time opportunity to get rich.” After a repeatedly disappointing government performance, voters may rationally conclude that “all politicians are crooks” and stop discriminating among them, to which all politicians rationally respond by “acting like crooks,” even if most may be willing to perform well in office if given appropriate incentives. Such an expectation‐driven failure of accountability, which I call the “trap of pessimistic expectations,” may precipitate the breakdown of democracy. Once politicians establish reputations for good performance, however, these act as barriers to the entry into politics of low‐quality politicians. The resulting improvement in government performance reinforces voters’ belief that democracy can deliver accountability, a process that I associate with democratic consolidation. These arguments provide theoretical microfoundations for several prominent empirical associations between the economic performance of new democracies, public attitudes toward democracy, and democratic stability.     

The Institutional Design Frontiers of Publicness and University Performance

This introduction to the symposium on the institutional design frontiers of publicness and university performance summarizes the range of diverse intellectual and practical perspectives converging on the idea that issues of design and publicness are important for thinking about the future of higher education. Collectively, the articles featured in this symposium demonstrate that the challenges facing higher education exhibit assorted social, economic, and political complexities. Public administration perspectives can play a key role in understanding and reshaping our higher education system into a more responsive social enterprise.