路径依赖与基因断裂——日本百年宪政转型透视

Path Dependence and Gene Split: Japanese Constitutional Transformation in the Past Century

日本历史上曾面临两次不同宪政制度的抉择,也经历了两次不同宪政制度的转型。从制度与文化的意义来说,现代日本人的法律生活是一个相互影响、相互促进、相互制约的复杂互动过程。在转型过程当中,日本制度与文化的转型不可避免地带有鲜明的"路径依赖"特性,"作为意识形态的宪法"和"作为制度的宪法"之间的偏差使得日本人的法律生活呈现出巨大的断裂与鸿沟。然而,另一方面,新宪法并没有完全被"路径依赖"所决定,日本传统文化基因的传承也曾出现部分断裂,宪政文化趋于成熟,并最终演化为新宪法实施的生命力。上述两种不同的文化特性为新制度的实施提供了不同方向的力量,并在不同利益集团的作用下构成了新制度的合力,最终共同决定了日本百年宪政转型的样态,同时左右着现代乃至未来日本人宪法生活的状况。

Historically Japan confronted twice basic constitutional choices and experienced two constitutional transformations of different nature. From the cultural and institutional perspective, the modern Japanese legal life is a complex interactive process, in which the constitutional culture and institution mutually reinforce and set limits to each other. The Japanese institutional and cultural transformation appears to be path dependant, with a prominent gap between the ＂constitution as an ideology＂ and the ＂ constitution as an institution＂ in the Japanese legal life. The new Constitution promulgated in 1946 is not deadlocked by its path dependency. The genetic inheritance of the Japanese cultural tradition has been interrupted to the benefit of the maturation of a constitutional culture, which was developed into a strong buttress for the implementation of this constitution. These two different kinds of the cultural features have influenced the constitutional implementation in different directions, and formed a new institutional force under the influence of various interest groups, which has given rise to the complex pattern of the Japanese constitutional transformation in the past century and influenced the contemporary and future Japanese constitutional lives at the same time.