钱穆与梁漱溟民主尚贤观之比较

A Comparison of Qian Mu and Liang Shu-ming’s Views on Democratic Meritocracy

钱穆与梁漱溟是中国近代著名学者,他们都反对全盘西化的政治道路,由尚贤精神出发,提出了各自的民主尚贤观,并希冀以此为基础建立现代国家。钱穆以“贤人政府”为传统政治进行辩护,进而提出基于“信托政治”的民主尚贤观,最终影响到其国家本位的路向选择;梁漱溟则通过“理性之国”作为理解传统社会的依据,构建起“团体政治”映照下的民主尚贤观,最终决定了其社会本位的路向选择。钱穆与梁漱溟的民主尚贤观实现了尚贤理念和选举民主的初步耦合,其对政治领袖道德使命和智识能力的要求,至今仍有借鉴意义。

Qian Mu and Liang Shu-ming were well-known scholars in twentieth century China. They both opposed the political path of total Westernization. Starting from the spirit of advocating sagehood, they put forward their respective views on democratic meritocracy, and aimed to build a modern country on this basis. Qian Mu defended the traditional politics of the“government of sages”, and then put forward the concept of democratic meritocracy based on“trust politics”, which ultimately affected his political choices for China. Liang Shu-ming used“the country of reason”as the basis for understanding traditional society. Qian Mu’s and Liang Shu-ming’s views on democratic meritocracy show the interconnection between electoral democracy and the idea of valuing the good and the wise, and democratic meritocracy’s requirements for the moral mission and intellectual ability of political leaders still has great significance to this day.