政治学中的民族议题

突破中国民族话语中以“民族”概念专指少数民族的思维的限制就会发现,人类历史上的“民族”概念最早形成于欧洲,指的是具有国家形式的人群共同体。这样一种与国家结合在一起的民族,具体表现为国民的共同体,是在一个长期的历史过程中形成的。民族形成后便将形成过程中经历的人口国民化、国民整体化等蕴涵于自身,使其成为蕴涵一系列社会政治机制的人口组织形式,并为欧洲现代社会、现代国家和现代政治的形成奠定基础。在“民族”概念的使用范围拓展以后,不具国家形式的各种历史文化共同体也被以“民族”概念来指称和描述,从而使民族的种类迅速增加。这样的民族共同体又对民族国家的统一、稳定和治理产生着深刻的影响,在国内和国际政治关系中发挥着重要的作用。对如此形态多样和影响深远的民族现象,政治学者不能漠然视之,而必须积极主动地关注和研究。由此形成的民族议题,既是政治学理论和知识体系构建不可或缺的重要方面,也是解释中国现代国家的构建和发展及政治学知识体系完备和创新的重要渠道。

Nationality Issues in Political Science

Breaking through the limitation of thinking that the concept of "nationality" specifically refers to ethnic minorities in Chinese national discourse, we will find that the concept of "nationality" in human history was first formed in Europe, which refers to the community of people in the form of a state. Such a nation combined with the state, embodied in the national community, is formed in a long historical process. After the formation of a nation, it will contain the population nationalization and national integration in the formation process, making it a population organization form containing a series of social and political mechanisms, and lay the foundation for the formation of modern European society, modern country and modern politics. After the expansion of the use of the concept of "nationality", various historical and cultural communities without state form are also referred to and described by the concept of "nationality", which makes the types of nation increase rapidly. Such a national community has a profound impact on the unity, stability and governance of the nation-state, and plays an important role in domestic and international political relations. Political scholars should not ignore such diverse and far-reaching national phenomena, but actively pay attention to and study them. The nationality issue thus formed is not only an indispensable aspect of the construction of political theory and knowledge system, but also an important issue to explain the construction and development of modern China and the perfection and innovation of political knowledge system.