以「治」領「政」：當代中國讀書人觀看自由民主的一種方式

Good Governing More Basic than Good Politics: Some Modern Chinese Appraisals of Liberal Democracy

本文選擇四位有代表意義的中國當代政治學者，彼此都熟悉西方自由民主體制，雖無思想互動，但在思想表達上，卻不約而同地呈現出不同於已然普世流行之自由民主思惟，並且共同呼應著中國古代政治思想傳統一種以治理為重的思考。此種思惟對於西方自由民主所展現之以政體為重的思惟與體制安排，採取了批判的態度，呈現一種以「治」為重，以「政」為輕的思想特質。雖然四位學者關於如何安置自由民主制度的態度有別，但是這種不約而同以治理為重的共通性，不啻顯示中國古代政治思想與傳統仍有其旺盛的生命活力。 Liberal democracy, in spite of its bad performance in many countries, is still taken to be the final human political establishment in its thinking mode and institutional framework among most political scientists. But some serious challenges are on the rise. The one I introduce here comes from ancient Chinese political tradition and is exemplified by four modern Chinese political scientists, who are all familiar with the doctrine of liberal democracy, but disagree with its thinking mode: the primacy of the politics of liberal democracy. Independently, they all put political primacy on good governing and treat it as the basis of any regime, democratic or not. This paper tries to expound this uniquely critical point on liberal democracy, and reveals its connection with the tradition of ancient China's political thought.