公民治理的權力課題：歐克秀對民主與民粹的哲學省思

The Power Issue of Civic Governance: Oakeshott’s Philosophical Consideration of Democracy and Populism

晚近關於英倫政治思想家麥克‧歐克秀（Michael Oakeshott, 1901-1990）的民主理論研究，多是從憲政民主或審議民主理論等研究取徑展開詮釋。然而，不同於此些詮釋，本文所欲闡述的論題是：歐克秀的民主論述乃是基於他對現代民主概念與公民的治理權力課題之反思和批判而來。以此為中心，本文將先析論Michael Minch從審議民主理論的角度來詮釋歐克秀民主概念之不足，進而分從「自我治理的信念」和「寡眾政治與民主治理」兩個面向展開議論，以梳理歐克秀對「民主」概念的哲學省思。最後，本文將以前述討論為基礎，從歐克秀的現代個人自由主義政治理路，來討論民主信念（democratic faith）和當代民粹議題的關聯。

It is claimed that Michael Oakeshott’s democratic thought has features similar to those of contemporary constitutional or deliberative democratic theories. Different from this claim, this article argues that Oakeshott’s democratic discourse is based on his critiques of the concept of democracy and the power issue of democratic governance, and due to these critiques, it is misleading to claim that Oakeshott anticipates a constitutional or deliberative democratic theory. Seen from this light, this article contests that Michael Minch’s deliberative democratic interpretation of Oakeshott’s thought is in fact a departure from Oakeshott’s philosophical considerations of democracy, which are related to the issues of“the idea of self-government”and“the democratic governance of the mass man politics”. Based on that, this article will also discuss the issue of contemporary populism and the problem of democratic faith from Oakeshott’s point of view.