诺尔贝托·博比奥论“自由主义式的社会主义”

Norberto Bobbio on "Liberal Socialism"

本文评析当代意大利政治思想家诺尔贝托·博比奥的"自由主义式的社会主义"思想,其要义为:一个民主的社会主义必须以自由主义民主政体之维系为根本前提,也因此必须是一种自由主义式的社会主义。作者从博比奥对当代各种其他主义和理论的批判切入,尝试重构他庞杂的政治论述,厘清其思想脉络,说明其困难之最主要症结在于对一种韦伯式社会学论述的误用,并设法为他解套。全文内容共分为五个部分:第一节概述意大利"自由主义式的社会主义"传统之历史背景与思想传承;第二节勾勒博比奥自由主义思想的基本轮廓;第三节检讨博氏在20世纪70年代中对西欧其他各种社会主义思潮的著名批判,以进一步厘清他为自由主义民主政体辩护的论据;第四节则以博氏关于西方民主体制的诸多负面观点为主轴,更深入地分析他的思想进路与困境;最后,作者提供个人的看法与批评,重新定位博氏思想的贡献,并指出其内在限制。作者判定博氏"综合"自由主义与社会主义两大思想传统的尝试并没有成功,但他的民主思考确有不少发人深省之处。

This paper offers a critical assessment of the Italian thinker Norberto Bobbio’s liberal-socialist thought.Section I takes a brief look at the Italian liberal-socialist tradition prior to Bobbio’s post-war interventions.Section II examines Bobbio’s political liberalism,followed by an analysis of his famous critique of Marxian socialism in Section III.At the heart of Bobbio’s liberal socialism is shown to be a powerful defense of liberal constitutional and representative democracy.That defense,however,has the effect of turning him away from socialism,with the whole idea of marrying liberalism and socialism thereby put in jeopardy.Section IV further explores the nature of that very defense,through an analysis of Bobbio’s discourse on 'actually existing democracy' and concomitant proposal for its democratization.His stance has revealed itself to be a highly unstable compound,torn between a conservative 'sociological realism' derived from Weber and Schumpeter on the one hand,and a radical-sounding democratization agenda on the other.It is argued,in Section V,that Bobbio’s sociological discourse is defective and accounts for much of his theoretical impasse,and a rescue attempt is made to salvage his democratization proposal from oblivion.In conclusion the author assesses the distinctive merits and limitations of Bobbio’s project as a whole.