公共协商:民主的本质要义

Public Deliberation:the Essence of Democracy

民主的本意即"人民的统治",公众通过协商参与公共事务乃民主的应有之义。雅典城邦的古典民主具有强烈的协商倾向。代议制民主中尽管协商的元素依然存在,但在实践中被弱化为选举民主,这是对民主本质的异化。20世纪的协商民主强调通过协商来参与公共决策,不仅是对代议制民主的批判与修正,也是对民主传统的坚持和发展,是对民主本质的回归。中国特色的社会主义协商民主制度立足于中国国情,契合社会主义民主的本质,是未来中国民主政治发展的方向。

The original intention of democracy is “ the rule of the people”. Thin public affairs through consultation is the essence of democracy. The classical democracy in the city-state of Athens is a democracy with a strong tendency to deliberate. The existence of deliberate elements of representative democracy is weakened into electoral democracy in practice, which is the alienation of the essence of democracy. The deliberative democracy in the 20participation in public decision-making through deliberation. This is the critique and amendment of representative democracy and the persistence and development of democratic tradition, which is a return to the essence of democracy. The socialist deliberative democracy with Chinese characteris-tics is based on China？s national conditions and meets the essence of socialist democracy. It is the direction for the development of democracy in our country.