Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A553-W323
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号： A553-W323
Release
Date: June 17, 2010
发布日：2010年6月17日
Topic:
The Way Out for China (Part XI) - by Wei Jingsheng
标题： 《中国的出路》之十一 -- 魏京生
Original
Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
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The
Way Out for China (Part XI)
--
By Wei Jingsheng
In
the past we have been discussing democratic systems, which neither assume human
nature is originally good, nor are designed for perfection. On the other side, democratic systems
are not designed assuming human nature is bad either. Instead, they fully appraise the diversity and plasticity of
human nature. A democratic system
is based on normal people's behavior, and restrains and guides people's
behavior to create a good social environment. This is a society ruled by law, not individuals.
Although
legal systems may be good, they are still operated by humans. To operate the legal system is
politics. There are numerous types
of political systems. According to
their characteristics, we may sum them up into two major categories: democracy
and autocracy. The design of an
autocratic system is the opposite of a democratic one. An autocratic system makes the
assumption that human nature is both good and bad. It designs the system according to the idea of the "wisest
at the top, while the fools are at the bottom". That is, to separate people into kind and evil types: wise
men and fools. It lets the
"wise elite" execute its non-negotiable rule of the
"fools". Thus the
autocracy.
Regardless
which kind of policy-making system is carried out within the elite, either
democratic or autocratic, to the average person this kind of rule is
autocracy. Why? Because the rights to participate in
the policy making process of the majority of the society is by irrevocable
proxy. Sometimes, the elite has
the same interest as the people; most of times it does not, even to the
opposite. To let them proxy the
people unconditionally is not reasonable from logic. It gives the power to the elite to violate others'
interests.
In
the older times, people were fooled by the propaganda of the elite and always
hoped for the appearance of well doers and sages to save the people. But in reality, there were very few
sages. The elite who carrying out
the rule most likely behaved with a savage face. They would exploit and suppress the people irrevocably. How to restraint these elite and
normalize their behavior? How to
make politics not only safeguard the interest of the elite, but also all the
people? These two issues have
perplexed the designers of political systems for thousands years.
The
modern democratic system is the system designed exactly for the purpose of
solving these two problems. The
thought in designing the democratic system was to eliminate the limits of the theory
of the original goodness or evil of human nature. All the members of the society are brought into the scope of
electing and being elected.
Regarding the good or bad of human nature, it depends on an individual's
behavior. There are systems to
guide them for being good. There
are also systems to guide them for being bad. The most important thing is: the election system that
enables changes every a few years eliminates from the root the opportunity of
those who violate people's interests and hold power for a long time. People use their votes to restrain the
elite and force them to adjust the interests to be the same as those of the
people, or at least close.
However,
the modern autocracies, most typically represented by the Nazi and the Communist
Parties, also got their legitimacy through the election system. There, the ruling power is not
monopolized by one individual or one family, but by a party or a clique. So the political reality after the
ruling power is monopolized, is still an autocracy. The characteristic of an autocracy is that the elite clique
monopolizes the ruling power. So,
although both the Nazi and the Communist Parties also held elections, it was
still an autocracy instead of democracy.
The boundary is defined by whether the ruling power is monopolized or
not. One party autocracy, although
different from the inherited sovereign power system, is still an
autocracy. Their shared common character
is the monopoly of the administration power.
Thus
we could say, election systems are not necessarily democratic. Democracy needs elections; but
elections are not democracy itself.
Democracy is the election between different parties and groups. People in reality can select different
parties and groups to replace the governing body. This is the real democracy. So a democratic system is not simply an election system, but
an election system under multi-party conditions. Elections are only one of the conditions that restrains a
ruling body. In between elections,
the opposition party can and should monitor and provoke the party that holds
power. This is the necessary
condition to guarantee people's rights.
Some
people think that the opposition party should support the party in power to
safeguard the interests of the country and the people, otherwise, it is
anti-revolutionary or against the people.
This thinking confuses right and wrong. Any political party must safeguard the interests of the
country and the people, otherwise it would lose in the election and will not
gain the trust of the people.
However, the opposition party plays a special role in a democratic
politics, namely, as a competitor.
The
politicians in an autocratic system are not all evil, while the politicians in
a democratic system are not all good either. The root reason for the politicians in an autocratic system
leaning toward evil things is because they do not have competing
adversaries. The politicians in a
democratic politics are more likely to lean toward good things instead of evil,
because the competing adversaries are staring at them and looking for
opportunities to attack them. This
is the root reason.
Some
people would say that we could monitor people's votes, as well as use
professional news media. Why do we
need the opposition party to talk nonsense? The prerequisite of this saying is wrong. It ignores the fact that politics
itself is very professional and most laymen could not understand it well. Also, there are too many interests
within politics. The politicians,
include the politicians who are eliminated through selection, are
professionals. Most of average
folks, new media, and intellectuals are just laymen of different levels in the
field of politics. These laymen
could criticize the professionals, but could not effectively monitor and
supervise them. Only politicians
of the opposition parties are professional; these opposition parties looking
for the possibility of governing have the impetus to monitoring and supervising
the governing party in the way to "seek the bones within the eggs",
instead of bureaucrats shielding each other, and wallowing in mire with them.
From
the above analysis we could reach the conclusion that the primary condition for
the modern day democracy is the multi-party system. An election without a multi-party system is not a
democracy. Only an election under
the prerequisite of the multi-party system is a democratic election, which will
produce political supervising and restraints that are beneficial to the people.
__ __ __
To
hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's commentary, please visit:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2010/WeiJS100521ChinaWayOut11.mp3
(Written
and recorded on May 21, 2010.
Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)
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中文版
Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A553-W323
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号： A553-W323
Release
Date: June 17, 2010
发布日：2010年6月17日
Topic:
The Way Out for China (Part XI) - by Wei Jingsheng
标题： 《中国的出路》之十一 -- 魏京生
Original
Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)
此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2010/report2010-06/WeiJS100617ChinaWayOut11A553-W323.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------
《中国的出路》之十一
-- 魏京生
在过去的几节里，我们谈论了民主制不是从性善论，也不是从完美主义出发设计的；也不是有些人评论的性恶论；而是充分估计到人性的多面性和可塑性。不把人设想的太好，也不设想得太坏。而是用制度规范人们的行为，约束引导人们的行为，创造出良好的社会环境，这就是法制社会。
法制虽好，也需要人去操纵。操纵法律体制运行的就是政治。政治制度有千千万万种，按其特征归纳为两大类：民主和专制。专制制度的设计和法制的设计背道而驰。它同时从性善论和性恶论出发，按照上智下愚的思想设计出一套制度。也就是把人分成善人和恶人；智者和愚民。由智者精英们对愚民执行没商量的统治。所以叫做“专制”。
无论精英集团内部实行什么样的决策制度，是“民主制”还是独裁制，对人民来说都是专制。因为社会大多数成员参与决策的权利被没商量地代理了。精英们的利益有时候和人民相同；大多数时候不同甚至相反。由他们无条件地代理人民，逻辑上就不合理，就是给予了精英集团侵犯他人利益的权力。
古人受精英集团宣传的愚弄，总希望假设中的善人和圣人出现，人民就可以得救了。但现实中却很少有圣人，实行统治的精英们表现出来的却绝大部分是一付狰狞的面孔，剥削压迫你们愚民没商量。怎样去制约精英，规范他们的行为呢？怎样使政治不仅仅是维护精英集团的利益，而是维护全体人民的利益呢？这两个问题困扰着几千年来的政治体制设计者们。
现代民主制正是为了解决这两个问题而设计出来的制度。民主制度的设计思想，排除了性善论和性恶论的界限。所有社会成员都被纳入了选举他人和被他人选举的范围。至于性善还是性恶，要看个人表现。有制度引导他们向善；也有制度限制他们作恶。最重要的是，几年一换的选举制度，从根本上限制了他们违背人民利益，长期把持权利的机会。人民通过选票制约着精英集团，迫使他们把利益调整到和人民一致或者接近。
但是，以纳粹和共产党为典型的现代专制，也通过选举制度获得合法性。不是由一个人或者一个家族垄断统治权；而是由一个党派或一个集团垄断统治权。统治权被垄断后的政治现实，仍然是专制。专制的特点就是精英集团垄断了统治权。所以，纳粹和共产党虽然也进行了选举，却仍然是专制而不是民主。分界线就在于统治权是否被垄断。换句话说，一党专制或者一党独大，和王权继承制虽然不同，但仍然是专制。他们的共同特点就是行政权力的垄断。
因此可以说：选举制不等于民主。民主必须选举，可是选举并不等于民主。民主是在不同的党派之间进行选举。人民在实际上有权选择不同的党派取代执政集团，这才是实际上的民主。所以民主制不是选举制；而是多党条件下的选举制。选举制只是制约统治集团的条件之一。在两次选举之间，反对党对执政党的监督和攻击，是人民的权利得到保障的必需条件。
有人认为：反对党应该支持执政党维护国家和人民的利益，否则就是反革命或者反人民。这是一种混淆是非的说法。任何政党都要维护国家和人民的利益，否则它就没有选票了，就得不到人民的信任。但是反对党在民主政治中扮演着一个特殊的角色，这就是竞争者。
专制政治中的政治家并不都是恶人：民主政治中的政治家也不都是好人。专制政治中的政治家之所以会倾向于做恶而不是行善，没有竞争对手是一个根本的原因。民主政治中的政治家之所以积极行善而不敢做恶，竞争对手随时盯着他们而且随时找机会攻击他们，是最根本的原因。
有人说：老百姓的选票可以监督，而且还有专业的媒体，为什么一定要反对党胡说八道呢。这种说法的前提就是错误的。它忽略了政治本身就是非常专业的，外行很难完全看清，而且利益太大了。只有政治家是内行，包括被淘汰的政治家。老百姓和媒体、知识分子们大多数都只是不同水平的外行而已。外行可以批评内行；但是不能有效地监督内行。只有同样是政治家的反对党才是内行；只有具备执政可能性的反对党才有动力去鸡蛋里挑骨头地监督执政党，不会官官相护，同流合污。
通过以上的分析得出了一个结论：多党制是现代民主的首要条件。没有多党制的选举，实际上不是民主。只有多党前提下的选举，才是民主的选举。才有可能产生对人民有利的政治监督和制约。
__ __ __
聆听魏京生先生的相关录音，请访问：
http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2010/WeiJS100521ChinaWayOut11.mp3
（撰写并录音于2010年5月21日。自由亚洲电台播出。）
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