公民参与公共决策的困境——公共选择理论的视角

Dilemma of Citizens Participating in Public Decision-making from the Perspective of Public Choice Theory

公共选择理论用理性行为模型解释了公共决策中的公民参与所存在的困境问题。唐斯以"理性的无知"的模型论证公民不参与投票具有合理性,但是现实当中又存在着大量公民积极参与的投票困境,为此公共选择理论从获取利益的角度、节约成本的角度以及因人而异的角度分别阐述了公民投票参与的原因。为了使参与和不参与的行为都得到理性行为的解释,公共选择理论又试图对理性行为假设进行批判与修改,提出了新理性行为论,这种理性行为既包含利己主义,也容纳了利他主义,从而可以更有说服力地解释和预测现实中的公民参与公共决策的行为。

Public choice theory uses reasonable activity model to illustrate the plight of citizens participating in public decision-making. With the ＂reasonable ignorance＂ model, Downs proves that it is proper for citizens not to participate in voting. But in reality, there is plight of great number of citizens participating in voting. Thus from the angle of gaining profit and saving cost, according to different persons,public choice theory respectively illustrates the masons for citizens participating in voting. In order to reasonably explain the activities of participating and non-participating, public choice theory tries to criticize and modify the hypothesis of reasonable activity and propose new theory of reasonable activity. This reasonable activity not only includes egoism but also altruism;it can explain and predict citizens＇ activity of participating in public decision-making more powerfully.