“社会熵”和“中介力量”:理解传统治理制度的联结概念

"Social Entropy" and "Intermediary Power": Two Bridge Terms to Understand the Traditional Institutions

“社会熵”和“中介力量”可以用来把握以“制度”为对象的既有研究,是理解传统治理制度的两个联结概念,并为其提供学理依据。“社会熵”是盖尔纳解释“民族主义是工业社会的产物”这一论题时使用的理论概念,“中介力量”是孔飞力探讨“现代国家在中国之起源”这一论题时使用的理论概念。前者指明,制度是响应社会熵的行动集,制度由此具有抗熵性;后者显示,制度的实效取决于对中介力量的安置状况。中介力量在任何形态的社会中都必然存在,它们的互动趋向于造成社会熵之增态,真实世界中的制度总要谋求对中介力量的妥当安置。借助这两个概念,一方面,可以整合制度研究的两种既有思路,“中介力量→社会熵→制度”表达的是以制度为因变量的解释思路,“制度→中介力量→社会熵”表达的是以制度为自变量的解释思路;另一方面,可以结合一个基于泉州史的“边疆行政化”之研究,讨论这两个概念对理解传统治理制度所提供的启发。

"Social Entropy"and"Intermediary Power"can be used as the bridge terms to review the literature on institution and supply the theoretical basis for understanding the concept of traditional institutions.The former term comes from Ernest Gellner,who regards nationalism as the product of the rise of industrial society,and the latter is from Philip Kuhn’s ideas on the origins of the modern state in China.Accordingly,institutions will be entropy-resistant as they are the sets of reactions to the social entropy and the institutional performance will depend on how the"Intermediary Power"are possibly arranged since they interact in any societies and tend to increase the social entropy.These two terms are not only helpful to combine the two main approaches on researching the institutions,one of which is"intermediary power→social entropy→institutions"that takes institution as a dependent variable,the other is"institutions→intermediary power→social entropy"that takes institution as an independent variable,but also useful to further understand the meaning of traditional institutions based on a case study on intergrating Quanzhou from the borderlands to a modern city.