监督式民主仍需公民积极参与政治——评迈克尔·舒德森《知情权的兴起:美国政治与透明文化(1945-1975)》

Monitorial democracy still needs citizen's active political engagement——Review of Michael Schudson's The rise of the right to know: Politics and the culture of transparency, 1945–1975

结合舒德森的其他重要著作,本文从写作动因、书写方法、论述主旨与所蕴含的新闻规范性主张四个方面,深入评述了《知情权的兴起》。舒德森通过知情权的兴起及其制度化的历史,论证"监督的公民身份"的合意性;通过结构-功能主义路向考察文化史,他将透明化文化阐述为政治系统自身权力均衡的产物,据此否定当下盛行的参与式民主。舒德森认为,民主的概念应随变动的实践而变。当今的民主实践逐渐走向"监督式民主",要求充当权力审查机制之一的专业主义新闻,而非促进公民对话与政治参与的新闻。本文批判了舒德森的论证方式与新闻规范性主张,认为其"监督式民主"仍需公民积极参与政治和公共领域才能有效实施;同时认为,对舒德森的理论话语"祛魅"是有效利用其话语的前提。

This article presented a detailed commentary on Michael Schudson’s The rise of the right to know:Politics and the Culture of Transparency,1945–1975 regarding the author’s motivation,the cultural historical approach,purpose,and the implied journalism normative theory.This book further justified the desirability of'monitorial citizenship'from the history of the rise and institutionalization of the right to know.Schudson treated the story as the ultimate result of the evolving power balance within the political system itself from sociology’s structural-functionalist perspective and thus denied the prevailing notion of participatory democracy.He proposed that watching over the political system is journalism’s proper role within the burgeoning new'monitory democracy'.In conclusion,the author criticizes Schudson’s argument and journalism normative theory and argues that citizen’s active political engagement and participation in the public sphere is still essential for enacting the monitorial democracy he claims.