民族主义与民主

Nationalism and Democracy:Second Thoughts

中外学界都有人认为民族主义与民主是水火互不相容的。据此不少人对中国出现的民族主义思潮大加鞭挞,断言它会阻碍中国民主化的进程。本文认为这种流行的观点既不符合理论逻辑,也不符合历史逻辑。作者不否认在实践中民族主义可能为反民主运动推波助澜,但他同时指出在民族主义与民主之间并不存在必然的矛盾关系。恰恰相反,民族主义是实现民主的必要条件,尽管它不是充分条件。换句话说,一个社会如果没有民族主义,就难以实现民主;即使实现了也不会牢固。当然仅仅有民族主义,民主并不会自动产生。阐明了民族主义要素是实现民主的必要条件,论证中国民族主义对民主的正面价值便水到渠成了。

The prevailing perception of Chinese nationalism has been negative. Many look upon nationalism with profound suspicion,considering it intrinsically hostile to democracy.While not denying that nationalism may be in practice associated with antidemocratic movements,this article intends to explore the democratic potential of nationalism.It argues that nationalism is not inherently incompatible with democracy.On the contrary,democracy can hardly function properly unless some key components of nationalism are present.Nationalism's theoretical affinity with democracy has been examined by other scholars.But they are normally led to conclude either that only certain types of nationalism can facilitate democracy or that only under certain conditions can nationalism be conducive to democracy.The proposition of this article is that all nationalisms share a number of common components,some of which are indispensable to democracy.