身份:一种重要的社会政治机制

Identity:An Important Social-Political Mechanism

将人在社会中的作用落实到个体时会发现,个体的人是在一个给定的人身位置上发挥作用的。这样的人身位置由特定社会中的权利义务关系确定,以“身份”概念来加以描述。社会在演变的过程中,由于治理的需要而确立社会成员的身份,从而将其塑造成为具体的社会行动者,每个人都作为具体的社会行动者而发挥作用。回顾历史可以看到,古希腊时期的城邦公民身份、王朝国家中的臣民身份以及民族国家体制所要求的国民身份,皆在特定的权利义务关系中被塑造,由此形成的身份及其相应的机制又对城邦体制、王朝国家体制及民族国家体制形成支撑性的影响。近几十年来欧美国家出现的由主观认同所确定的身份,对国民身份形成了侵蚀并弱化了其民族国家体制的现象,又从另外一个特定的侧面表明了国民身份对民族国家体制的支撑性作用。这样的现实表明,身份是一种基础性的社会政治机制,也是国家体制、社会体制研究中一个不可或缺的角度。

When implementing the role of people in society to individuals, it is found that individuals play a role in a given personal position. This personal position is determined by the rights and obligations in a specific society, and is described by the concept of “identity”. Throughout societal evolution, identities of social members are established due to governance needs, shaping them into concrete social actors, and each person plays a role as a concrete social actor. Looking back at history,it can be seen that the citizenship of the city-state in ancient Greece, the subject identity in the dynastic state, and the national identity required by the nation-state system were all shaped in specific relations of rights and obligations, and that the resulting identities and their corresponding mechanisms formed a supportive influence on the system of the city-state, the dynastic state, and the nation-state system. The phenomenon of the erosion of national identity and the weakening of the institutions of the nation-state by the identity determined by subjective identification that has emerged in Western countries in recent decades demonstrates, from another specific side, the supportive role of national identity for the institutions of the nation-state. This reality indicates that identity is a fundamental socio-political mechanism, and also an indispensable perspective in the study of national and social systems.