法治和关系:是对立还是包容?——从韦伯的经济与法律之间关系的理论谈起

What is the relation between the rule of law and “guanxi”? Are they mutually exclusive or inclusive? There have been a lot of different opinions since Max Weber. The paper is composed of four parts. It begins with the question: “What is Max Weber’s question?”, that is, why only the West could produce the capitalist system? Secondly, the paper reviews Western scholars’ challenges to Weber’s theory, including Weber’s classification of legal systems, the England issue and East Asian issue. Thirdly, the paper discusses the relation between economic growth and legal system in China, referring to the different interpretations of the reasons for the economic growth in China, such as bigger market and cheaper labors, investment from overseas Chinese and family economy, especially focusing on the legal reasons for the economic growth in China. Finally, the paper examines the relation between the rule of law and guanxi in term of the sociology of organization and P. Nonet and P. Selznick’s sociology of law. The author believes that the rule of law and “guanxi” are two different means of regulating human relations. The former regulates the secondary relations and the latter regulates the primary relations. Each of them has its advantages and limits. The rule of law and “guanxi” are not mutually exclusive, but inclusive.