势成骑虎:现代国家施政的双曲线

Riding a Tiger:The Hyperbola in the Governance of a Modern State

现代国家是一个庞然大物。面对可以吞噬一切的利维坦,一个社会处在驯服它、还是臣服于它的骑虎难下窘境。这样的处境,让国家运行呈现双曲线:控制住国家就得到良好治理的上行线,与无法控制国家而使其施政处于下行线。国家运行的上行线,让国家呈现昂然向上、生机勃勃的状态。国家的这一运行状态,不来自国家的权力意志,而受惠于驯服国家。国家运行的下行线,显现为一条从懒政、庸政、乱政、恶政到暴政颓变的线索,进而导致国家的结构畸形、制度安排不当、公职人员素质低下,并必然使国家运行于令人不满的颓势状态中,呈现在国家间竞争的失败结局上。在治国如骑虎的定势中,要么驯服这只猛兽,要么被其吞噬。因此,如果要让国家运行于上行曲线上,务必率先保证国家权力的皈依伏法。

The modern state is a behemoth.Facing a Leviathan,which can devour everything,is like facing a tiger that is difficult to tame and must be tamed.In the face of this tiger,there is no way for a society to avoid it,because society always needs a minimum of the state to maintain order.The society is in a dilemma of either taming the tiger or surrendering to it.Such a situation makes the operation of the country present an eye-catching hyperbola.First,if the country is controlled,it will be well governed.Second,if there is no way to control the country,its governance will be on a downward line.The upward line of the country s operation presents a high-spirited and vigorous state,which does not come from the will power of the state,but benefits from taming the state.The downward line of the country s operation appears as a clue from lazy government,mediocre government,chaotic government,bad government to tyranny and decadence.This is the result of the failure of the state to be tamed:the deformed structure of the state,the improper institutional arrangements,and the low quality of public officials inevitably lead to the unsatisfactory decline of the state,which is presented as failure in the competition between countries.Comparatively speaking,lazy government and mediocre government are common phenomena that may occur under different political conditions,and they are the convergence manifestations of bureaucratic diseases.As an important dividing point between the upward and downward lines of national governance,disorderly government is the result of the power not respecting the rules or trying to act positively.If chaotic government is not restricted,it will lead to bad government.Bad government is a state in which those in power are completely free from the rules and govern with a kind of arrogance of power.In bad government,not only is the power unlimited,but the arbitrariness of power is increased,and the measures with which the power is imposed are significantly improper.Bad government often slides inexorably into tyranny when power is not well-controlled.Tyranny is the state where political power enforces governance by the machinery of violence.It is an unsustainable state of governance,either leading to the collapse of the state power or to social subversion.This is the bottom line of the downward line of national governance.Hold on to this bottom line,and the country can survive.Otherwise,the country sinks in an existential crisis.The causes of the downward line of national governance lie in the unchecked power,the negative mentality of society,and the arrogance within political systems and habits,which promote each other and endanger the survival of the country.It can be seen from the correspondence between the country s upward and downward lines that if we try to ensure that the country checks the downward bottom line and maintains the upward track,we must tame the“tiger”.Because in the posture of governing the country like riding a tiger,we must either tame the beast or be devoured by it.In an attempt to ensure that the country s operations stay on an upward trajectory,it is imperative to subject the state power to the rule of law.