走出直接民主的困境——代议制民主理论的产生和发展

Walking Out of the Dilemma of Direct Democracy——Emergence and Development of Representative Democracy Theory

直接民主制只适合古代社会的特殊条件,无法适用于现代社会之地广人多的情况。代议制民主理论走出了直接民主的困境,解决了公民参与和体制效率之间的矛盾,使得在现代社会地广人多的大国实行民主成为可能。在代议制民主理论的发展过程中,洛克、托马斯.潘恩、约翰.密尔三位思想家作出了重要的贡献。洛克提出了议会至上原则和人民委托权力的思想,奠定了代议制民主理论的基础;潘恩把代议制和民主制明确地结合起来,开创了代议制民主理论;密尔系统论述了代议制民主的种种问题,使代议制民主理论得到完善。三位政治思想家的代议制民主理论一脉相承,渐臻成熟。作为近代以来西方主流的民主理论,代议制理论对现代民主的发展意义重大,是现代民族国家构建民主制度最具有现实指导意义的理论。

Direct democracy is only suitable for especial situation of ancient society, not for modern large nations. The representative democracy theory has walked out of the dilemma of direct democracy, and resolved the conflict between citizen participation and system efficiency, making possible practicing democracy in modern large nations. During the development of the representative democracy theory, John Locke, Thomas Paine and J.S. Mill made monumental contributions. Locke proposed the principle of parliament supreme and the thought of granting power by people, which laid the foundation of the representative democracy theory; Paine closely combined representative system with democracy, which found the theory of representative democracy; Mill systematically discussed various questions of representative democracy, which improved the theory of representative democracy. They developed the representative democracy theorycontinuously. The representative democracy theory is of great significance in developing modem democracy. It is the most realistic and guiding theory to build democracy for modern nations.