合理性与政治合法性——罗尔斯的自由主义政治合法性原则探究

Reasonableness and Political Legitimacy——A Study of John Rawls's Liberal Principle of Legitimacy

约翰·罗尔斯把获取政治合法性的努力理解为提出好的公共理由来为政治权力的行使作公共辩护的过程,要求合法的政治权威要得到公民的合理同意。合法性的公共辩护希望达致以下双重目标:1.以合理性来设定同意的条件,以提供作为公共辩护的好的理由;2.这些理由不仅外在地是好的,而且它们又是可被公民们视为好的。合理性的规范性力量源自于自由平等的民主公民的理想,但自由主义的一些实质性价值承诺构成了它的规范性边界;只有在这个规范性边界之内,合理标准本身以及合法性原则才有可能获得公民们的普遍同意,对检验合法性而言非常关键的"合理/不合理"之分才有得到辩护的可能性与现实性。

Rawls takes efforts of gaining political legitimacy as the process of public justification which provides public reason for the exercise of political power.His liberal principle of legitimacy,which claims that the exercise of political power is fully proper only when fundamental political principle could reasonably be endorsed by all reasonable citizens,intends to achieve the following two goals at the same time:first,using the idea of reasonableness to set normative constraints,so as to provide good reasons;second,these reasons could also be accepted by reasonable citizens.The idea of reasonableness derives its normative force from the ideal of free and equal citizens which flourished in liberal society.For this reason,some substantive liberal value commitments constitute the normative boundary of the idea of reasonableness.Only within this boundary can the difference between 'reasonable /unreasonable',which is the key element to testing the political legitimacy,the dichotomy be defended.