论儒学基本原理与民主政治的兼容与接轨

早期儒家思想中的一些基本原理与现代民主政治的理念是可以兼容和接轨的。儒家以代表“天意”的“民意”作为政权合法性的依据 ,符合民主政治的权力观 ;儒家的“性善论”可以用来论证民主制度的合理性 ;儒家的“中庸”从政治决策的意义上来说往往是民主程序的自然结果 ;儒家提倡的“特立独行”精神所体现的负责任的个人主义是民主政治所需要的前提。

On the Compatibility between Confucian Principles and Democracy

Certain basic principles of the early Confucian thoughts are compatible with the conceptions of modern democratic politics. The Confucian school justifies the validity of political power by taking “people's will" to represent the “Heaven's will", so as to make itself compatible with the democratic outlook of political power; demonstrates the rationality of the democratic system with the doctrine of “human nature is good"; reveals that the doctrine of the “Mean" is the only natural outcome of the democratic procedure in the sense of policy making; and confirms that a responsible and committed individualism incarnated by the spirit of “independent personality" it has all along advocated is the very presupposition democratic politics.