英文摘要 |
Democracy is the most important political form in modern society. The ideal of constitutional democratic order is also the principle and basic value of our constitution. In most democratic state, the representative government is the practical form of ideal of democracy. (the so-called “representative democracy”). But from Rousseau until modern populism, the representative democracy is always criticized as “un-democracy”, people in the democratic state always considers that the “true will of people” is neglected by the representative government (especially the political elite). Hence, the government of representative democracy is often regarded as the second-best choice of the democratic government. This paper tries to discuss and analyze the theories of representative democracy in the Germany constitutional theory. It tries to point out, how the Germany constitutional theories justify the legitimacy of representative democracy. In first democratic state in Germany history (the Weimarer Republik, 1919-1933), four important legal theorists in the Germany public law, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, Carl Schmitt, and Rudolf Smend, analyzed the ideal and reality of democracy, they all noticed, the democracy must face one basic problem: the ideal of democracy means “people rule themselves”, but not all citizens can participate all political decision in the state. Only the active citizen (Aktivbürger) can influence the political process in the democratic state. The representative government has therefore its important function for the democracy. Kelsen and Heller, as the supporters of parliamentarism, pointed out the representative function of parliament and political parties; The skeptics or Opponents of parliamentarism, such as Rudolf Smend and Carl Schmitt then emphasized the representative function of political leader (Reichpresdent, the president in the Weimarer Republik). Smend poined out the integrative function of the president for the formation of whole people; Schmitt tried to legitimate the function and necessity of the president for the representation of the homogeneous people. After 1945, the main current opinion of democratic theory of Germany public law is the national-liberalism, the democratic theory of Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde (1930-2019). His theory of democracy attaches great importance to the political parties and parliament for the formation of the people’s will, and he believed the officers of the state (include the members of parliament) should keep neutrality and distance with any particular interest in civil society. The officers of the state should exercise their legal authority according to the law and general interest. That is so-called “Prinzip des Amtes” in the Germany public law. This paper tries to use these arguments for the justification of representative democracy. From points of views of many Germany constitutional theories, the ideal of democracy isn’ t to reflect the particular interest of any social groups in the policies and law. The political processes in democratic state should not only “reflect” the different interest in plural society, also to form the people’ will in the state institutions. |