法治國作為和諧社會的理論基礎

Rule of Law as a Theoretical Foundation for Harmonious Society

"和諧是人類社會發展的最終目標，但是，對於什麼是和諧卻存在著不同的理解。不可否認地，從不同的學術背景出發，會形成對和諧社會的不同理解。儘管學者間對和諧社會要素的認定不同，然而，大多數的學者皆認為：和諧社會是一個以人為本的社會、是一個可持續發展的社會、是一個大多數人能夠分享改革發展成果的社會。更確切地說，和諧社會必須以人為基本要素，實行機會均等，進而形成自行解決衝突的機制。就此而言，和諧社會是透過一定的制度和道德約束來實現，進一步提供給社會成員參與、分享的平等機會，以形成一個有責任的社會。也就是說，政府有政府的社會責任，公民有公民的社會責任，企業有企業的社會責任。事實上，為了達成這個目標，法治是必然的要求，具體來說，以法律與制度來調節和保障社會活動，是「和諧社會」的內在要求。因為一個社會不可能沒有衝突、不可能沒有裂痕，好的社會在於不斷用自己的法律制度化解衝突、彌合裂痕。但是，何謂「法治」卻是一個模糊的概念，需要透過法治國原則，來具體化法治的內涵，否則，極可能形成假借法治之名的非法治國家。因此，法治國原則的實質意義，主要精神乃體現於：人是國家的目的，國家是為了人而存在，並非是人為了國家而存在。也就是說，在實質法治國之內，國家所有的公權力行使，包括立法權、行政權以及司法權在內，都受到憲法上自由民主法治的價值秩序，與人民所有基本權的拘束。法治國原則的實質意義，就是在憲法自由民主法治的基本價值秩序下，透過整體法秩序的規範作用，設計與規劃國家的組織體系，實踐人民基本權的保障，促成人的自我實現的最大可能性。其實，只有在一個多元的社會，人的自我實現才有可能。因為在一個多元價值的社會系統中，才有機會去開展自我的價值選擇，而不被社會優位（或國家優位）的價值意識壓抑。人有了在多元社會自我開展的基礎之後，他才能在這種多元社會所提供的多元選擇機會中，自由地做出自我決定，人的自我實現才有可能。所以，自我能否實現與多元社會的建立，有著密切關聯。在此，則形成了多元文化國的保障。藉由國家中立與國家寬容這兩個原則的維護，國家須對不同文化社群形成的多樣性文化，予以寬容、尊重與平等對待，使人民不因其文化差異而影響其人格開展，如此一來，人在合憲秩序下的最大自我實現才有可能。整體而言，由於法治國是要求一個以人民為本的國家，而這也與和諧社會的目標不謀而合，皆是以人的自我實現為核心思考。因此，法治國相關的原則型塑，將形成支撐和諧社會的基礎。在此，需加以說明的是，因為多元社會為人民自我實現的前提，所以，和諧社會必然也是一個尊重多元的社會，藉由社會成員間的相互尊重，才能化解因價值不同而生的衝突，進一步達成「和諧」的社會狀態。Harmony is the ultimate aim of social development in human society; however, there are various opinions about what a harmonious society is. It is no denying, with different academic backgrounds, that harmonious society can be understood differently. Despite the fact that scholars recognize different elements for a harmonious society, most scholars agree that harmonious society is a society with people-oriented principle and with enough capacity to continue its development. Also, the majority of citizens can share the fruit of reform in the society. To be more specific, harmonious society must consider human beings as the most basic element, ensuring equal opportunity as well as developing a mechanism that can solve the conflicts by its self Hence, harmonious society is implemented through some rules and moral controls; furthermore, it provides equal opportunity for members of society to participate in and share for the purpose of building a responsible society. That is to say, the government, the citizens and the corporations all have their own social responsibilities. In fact, to achieve this goal, legal governance is a necessary requirement. To be specific, the inner requirement for harmonious society is to regulate and protect the social activity by means of laws and systems. Since it is impossible for a society immune to conflicts and rifts, a good society should rely on its legal system to ease the conflict. However, “Rule of Law” is still an ambiguous concept; its content will be embodied by the principle of “Rule of Law.” Otherwise, chances are that the nation, under the veil of rule of law, is anything but rule of law. Hence, the substantial meaning of “Rule of Law”is that the aim of nation is people. A nation is built for its people rather than people are for the maintenance of nation. Namely, within the regime of rule by law nation, all the executions of the public authoritarian power, including right of legislation, right of administration and judicial right, are influenced by the values and orders claiming freedom, democracy and legal governance and controlled by the basic rights of human beings. The substantial meaning of “Rule of Law” is to design and plan the organization system for a nation with the regulation of the whole legal orders. Under such circumstances can it protect basic human rights under the values of constitution, freedom, democracy and legal governance and people can achieve its self-fulfillment to full extent. In fact, only in a diverse society can human beings be likely to fulfill themselves. It is because people can development their own choice of values, instead of being pressed by the society-supreme values. With the basement of self-development in a diverse society, people are free to make their own decisions among numerous options offered by a diverse society. This makes people’s self-fulfillment possible. Therefore, whether the individual can achieve self-fulfillment or not has a lot of to do with the building of a diverse society, which safeguards a multicultural nation. Based on the principles of neutrality and tolerance, nations should ensure every ethnic group is treated equal with tolerance and respect so that the cultural difference cannot harm the development of personality. In such a case, it is possible for people to achieve the utmost self-fulfillment in the constitutional order. To sum up, “Rule of Law” requires people-oriented principle, which suits the aim of harmonious society perfectly. Both of them consider people’s self-fulfillment as their core values. Hence, the formation of rule-of-law related principle will become the foundation of harmonious society. With a diverse society as the precondition of human’s self-fulfillment, a harmonious society will be nothing but respect diversity. Moreover, with mutual respects among social members, the conflict resulting from different values can be eased; furthermore, it can lead to the harmonious social status quo."