什么是现代国家?

What Is a Modern State?

什么是现代国家?这是现代化问题的研究者和现代化建设的实践者都无法回避的一个问题。西方主流的现代国家概念主要包含“民族国家”和“宪政民主”这两个要素,但是,“民族国家”概念即使在西方也存在理解上的混乱,在实际运用中面临无法适用于多民族国家的困境。宪政民主虽促进了西方的现代化,但在理论上存在诸多偏颇和误区,在实践中则带来了一系列的问题和灾难。现代国家的适当定义应该是,与传统国家相比,国家的公共性更强,公民拥有政治参与权,国家机构的制度化和政治权威的合理化程度更高,并有较强能力促进稳定和发展的国家。

What is a modern state?This is a problem that both the researchers and the practitioners of modernization cannot avoid.The western mainstream concept of modern state mainly includes two elements:“nation-state”and“constitutional democracy”.However,even in the West,the concept of“nation-state”is confused in understanding and cannot be applied to multi-ethnic countries in practice.Although constitutional democracy has promoted the modernization of the West,there are many biases and misunderstandings in theory,and a series of problems and disasters in practice.A proper definition of a modern state is the one that is more public than a traditional state,where citizens have the right to political participation,where state institutions are institutionalized and political authority is rationalized to a greater extent,and where there is a greater capacity to promote stability and development.