论托克维尔的政治自由观及其局限

On Tocqueville's Notion of Political Freedom and Its Limitation

经过卢梭对人民主权的重新阐述和贡斯当对立宪代议制的顽固坚持,后革命时代的法国自由主义陷入困境,似乎个人自由与直接参与式政治自由在现代社会不可兼容。但托克维尔否认这一点,认为民主社会急需参与式政治自由,否则就会走向行政专制。在卢梭与美国的双重启发下,他把政治自由的核心从对主权的直接行使或间接掌握转向对公共事务的参与本身,通过非主权的自由在代议制民主之下重建直接参与式政治自由,以抵制国家的官僚制行政。然而官僚制行政无法抵制,只可控制。托克维尔政治方案的现实价值主要在于促进议会的成熟与强大,从而避免行政专制。

After Rousseau’s restatement of popular sovereignty and Constant’s persistence in the constitutional representative system,French liberalism in Post-Revolutionary Age was in dilemma:it seemed that direct participatory political freedom was not compatible with individual freedom.But Tocqueville denied this and thought that democratic society needed participatory political freedom especially,otherwise it would tend to administrative despotism.After the dual inspirations of Rousseau and America,he shifted the core of political freedom from the direct exercise or indirect control of sovereignty to the participation in public area.In order to resist the bureaucratic administration,he rebuilt direct participatory political freedom under representative democracy on the basis of non-sovereign freedom.However,bureaucratic administration cannot be resisted and can only be controlled.The true value of Tocqueville’s political solution is mainly to make parliament mature and powerful,thus avoiding administrative despotism.