民主形态的转型:论全过程人民民主对西式民主的超越

Transformation of Democratic Form:On the Transcendence of the Whole-Process People’s Democracy to Western Democracy

在民主价值实现的问题上,西式民主对超越民主最低限度原则的有限理解,使其面临着政治承诺的困境。借由对精英-契约论说的宣扬、对竞争性选举政治的塑造以及对民主古典主义的修正,西式民主试图论证自由主义的中心地位。然而,政治与资本的广泛关联扩展到理论上,必然涉及西式民主与其政治共同体假设之间的深层次的历史缘由。此一缘由主要表征为政治生活的变迁,并通过全球复杂性、多元文化论和参与不平等所组成的结构性事实,共同揭示出西式民主理论假设的局限。全过程人民民主作为一种民主的新形态,不仅在民主形态转型进程中扮演着重要角色,而且也使得有关民主价值和民主本质的问题被予以重新审视。全过程人民民主既可被视作一种重大理念,也可被理解为与其密切相关的人民民主的高度概括,同时也是马克思主义民主理论中国化时代化的一次重大继承和发展,集中反映出区别于西式民主的规范特性。从理论的立基渊源、体系的规范构建和实践的凝练丰富等三个方面,可以考察全过程人民民主对西式民主的系统性超越。而从政治实践和政治文化两个层面出发,还可进一步厘清两种民主形态之间的差异。这不仅有助于我们深刻认识民主的本质,而且还有助于展现中国式民主和构建人类政治文明新形态的可能性。

On the issue of the realization of democratic values,western-style democracy faces the dilemma of political commitment because of its limited understanding of the principle of transcending the minimum of democracy.Western-style democracy tries to demonstrate the central position of liberalism by propagating the theory of elite-contract,shaping competitive electoral politics and revising democratic classicism.However,the extensive relationship between politics and capital extends to theory,which inevitably involves the deep historical reasons between western-style democracy and its political community hypothesis.The reason is mainly characterized by the change of political life,and through the structural facts composed of global complexity,multiculturalism and unequal participation,the limitations of westernstyle democratic theory assumptions are jointly revealed.The whole-process people’s democracy,as a new form of democracy,not only plays an important role in the process of democratic transformation,but also makes the issues about democratic values and democratic essence be re-examined.The wholeprocess people’s democracy can be regarded as a major concept,and it can also be understood as a high generalization of people’s democracy closely related to it.At the same time,it is also a major inheritance and development of the modernization of Marxist democratic theory,which reflects the Normative characteristics different from western-style democracy.There are three aspects:the foundation of theory,the normative construction of system and the concise and rich practice,that we can examine the systematic transcendence of the whole-process people’s democracy over western-style democracy.From the two levels of political practice and political culture,we can further clarify the differences between the two democratic forms.This not only helps us to insight the essence of democracy,but also helps to show the possibility of Chinese-style democracy and building a new form of human political civilization.