民主危机的经济根源:从马克思民主观的三次转变看当代西方民主理论的困境

Economic Sources of the Crisis of Democracy:The Dilemma of Contemporary Western Democratic Theories Through the Lens of the Three Transitions in Marx's Conception of Democracy

进入21世纪以来,西方自由民主制在世界范围内陷入了退潮和危机的困境.受限于资产阶级关于自由和平等的抽象理念,以及被形式化的公域-私域思维模式所束缚,当代西方民主理论无法对民主危机的成因和出路做出透彻的解析.反观马克思主义,由于能够深入到经济领域对民主问题寻根探源,并把握住了阶级利益分化和经济运行矛盾的核心要素,便具备了当代西方民主理论无可比拟的优越性.马克思主义民主理论的优越性,源自马克思早年在民主观上的三次重大转变.依托这三次转变而形成的历史唯物主义,是我们透视当代西方民主理论政治光谱的利器.在这一利器的切割和梳理下,当代西方民主理论的五大代表性流派异彩纷呈的见解及其相互关系得以清晰地展现出来.同时,它们所共有的资产阶级理性民主观的缺陷,也在马克思主义历史唯物主义民主观的映照下暴露无遗.

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,Western liberal democracy has been trapped in recession and crisis worldwide.Limited by abstract conceptions of liberty and equality,and bound by the formalized public-private mode of thinking,contemporary Western democratic theories are unable to thoroughly analyze the causes of the crisis of democracy and its way out.Marxism,on the contrary,possesses unparalleled advantages over its Western counterpart,due to its commitment to exploring the deep causes of democratic performance in the economic domain and because of its emphasis On the core factors of Class di fferentiation and economic contradictions.The superiority of the Marxist theory of democracy originated from three great transitions in Marx's conception of democracy during his early years.Historical materialism,which was formed on the basis of these three transitions,equips US with a powerful weapon to look at the ideological spectrum of contemporary Western democratic theories.With the incisive analysis provided by this weapon,the divergent arguments and the interrelationships of five representative schools of thought in contemporary Western democratic theories are lucidly displayed before US.In the meantime,the shortcomings of bourgeois rational conception of democracy shared by all these five schools are also exposed in the broad light of the Marxist historicabmaterialist conception of democracy.