“直接民主”抑或“代议民主”?——卢梭民主理论初探

Rousseau's Democratic Theory——Direct or Representative Democracy?

尽管卢梭通常被认为是直接参与民主理论的原型,但卢梭在其著作中常常对民主制持批评态度,本文试图对这种矛盾提出一个初步的解答。按照本文的解读,卢梭创造性地对主权者和政府进行了区分。在政府层次上,卢梭反对直接民主,而主张代议民主;但在主权者层次上,卢梭则主张公民的直接参与,而反对主权被代表。卢梭的思考似乎在提示我们,直接民主和代议民主并非像我们通常想象的那么不可调和,我们完全可能找到某种将二者结合起来的路径。

The purpose of this paper is to examine a seeming paradox that Rousseau has always been regarded as a forerunner of the theory of direct democracy,while he criticized direct democracy for many times in his works.According to this article,Rousseau advocates representative democracy against direct democracy at sovereignty level,while he encourages citizens to participate in public affaires at sovereignty level.His creative thought suggestes that direct and representative democracy are not unconciliable as we often think.