民主的古今之辨——以雅典和美国为例

A Comparison Study on Ancient and Modern Democracy——A Case Study on Athens and the United States

古代地中海世界是民主的孕育之所,其中又以雅典的古代民主制度作为民主政治的源头,其实行的民主模式是一种"直接民主"。但古代民主的发展并不是持续的,它在欧洲黑暗的"中世纪"时期的大环境下一度被抛弃。直到现代早期,美国作为资本主义民主政治发展的典型代表,率先具备了民主的制度框架和运行条件,实现了民主向现代的转化,开始实行一种"代议制民主"。但这并不能证明是现代民主对古代民主的超越,两者都是在一定的历史环境下所产生。古代民主在现代民主的形成过程中发挥了一定的推进和导向作用,同时,现代民主在古代民主的基础之上发展演变,其内涵与形式愈加多样化。

The ancient Mediterranean wodd was the birthplace of democracy, in which the ancient democratic system of Athens was taken as the source of democratic politics. The democratic mode of Athens was a kind of ＂direct democracy.＂ However, the development of the ancient democracy was not sustained. It was once abandoned in the context of dark ＂Middle Ages＂ in Europe. Until early modem times, as a typical representative of the development of capitalist democratic politics, the United States took the lead in possessing the institutional framework and operating conditions of democracy, realized the trans- formation of democracy to the present and started to implement ＂representative democracy.＂ However, this does not prove that modem democracy surpasses ancient democracy. Both of them are produced under a certain historical context. At the same time, modem democracy develops and evolves on the basis of ancient democracy, and its connotation and form are more and more diversified.