Political Communication In The Nation

Power-oriented political integration pattern of modern nation-state, relying on its abstract locality-beyond identification mechanism, accomplishes the national integration of split societies. However, the lack of inherency and localism in this integration and consequently the crisis in standardizing structure unanimously, as well as the diversity of identification and the alienated state among individuals and groups, bring about the biggest domestic problem in politics in each nation-state after the cold war. Therefore, that how to break through the traditional integration path in institutionalized democracy, how to create an "organic community" in public areas outside the political system by "organic connection" during daily life, and finally how to accomplish the reconstitution of nation-states' cohesion, become crucial problems of constructing political civilization in the twenty-first century. Methods of political communication are tried on here to investigate the political integration problem of state and society. Main points as below:Firstly, modern nation-state, a new form of governance, whose emergence changed the traditional social communication and integration pattern, completed the transformation of a traditional society to a modern society by means of its highly effective integration, national sovereignty as a core, in politics. Meanwhile, it correspondingly disintegrates the former multiplex-structured integration pattern based on blood relationship, local identity, religion and folkways, etc., and shapes instead a single political pattern driven by sovereignty, that is, political integration by power.Secondly, the course of transformation in China's grass-root shows that political integration by power exclusively uses national power as the main measure of political integration, that the state executes in a sovereignty capacity a simplex "reflexive monitoring" to societies within the "national boundaries". In order to secure the national power to arrive quickly and effectively at each would-be integrated stage, the state eliminates those tanglesome characteristics of all the integration objects, and regard them as indistinctive abstract existence wanting technical treatment. Thus, integration of this kind holds the political community externally, rather than internally and organically.Thirdly, a new pattern of political integration should be cultivated when the old one can do nothing but keep an outward appearance of political integration, let alone to eliminate its hidden structural morbidity and identification crisis. Through the experiments in Shanghai's communities on political communication, one can find that political integration by communication is right the new pattern whose inner mechanism is totally different from, but whose outer institutional aspect can well supplement political integration by power. The basic characteristics of this new pattern consist in its stress on pluralism, double direction, consultation and concreteness of integration. For the purpose of reaching an agreement and comprehension in all the political communities, it provides those equal political main bodies with freedom of speech in order to reach compatible common ground, to moderate activity, and accordingly to promote identification. The thesis's theoretical background is the changes in modernity of modern nation-state political integration, focusing on the form and development of China's nation-state political integration by power. Close observation of an urban community "the Life-World" in Shanghai is used here to support the argumentations. All in all, the main purpose is to cultivate logos in political communication and therefore uncover the fontal existence of political life.