The Goodness Of Power

One of the important goals that China has set in the process of constructing the so-called Xiaokang Society is political civilization, which calls for the goodness of power. However, since China is in a transitional period of time from an old mechanism to a new one, there have appeared some corruptions in political field out of the abuses of power. Therefore, it has become an important topic of study in political ethics to prevent the evil of power to advocate the goodness of power. In recent years, the academic circle has made effective research into the issue of political power, but the research is seldom seen in the field of ethics, which finds its best expression in the fact that people haven't paid enough attention to the issue of political power in the rudimentary period of socialism by looking into the moral character of the agent of . power and the morality of institution. People have hardly made any prescriptions on the goodness of socialist political power and have hardly put forward any measures to control power for the sake of goodness. People have always hoped assimilate political power to goodness instead of evil, which has turned out to be a challenging and creative job. Urged by this kind of situation, I have decided to devote myself to the study of the goodness of socialist political power.This thesis is divided into seven parts. The introductory part provides the theoretical and practical basis for choosing the topic of study. Chapter 1 gives the definitions of such concepts as political power, goodness, the nature and features of the goodness of political power. Chapter 2 analyzes the transformational process of the goodness of political power and defines the goodness of socialist political power in view of materialism. Chapter 3 puts forward the basic principles topursue the goodness of socialist political power--that is, theprinciple of ruling for the people, from which come three other principles, viz. that of justice, that of democracy and that ofresponsibility. Chapter 4 offers the operational mechanism of the goodness of socialist political power from the perspective of institutional goodness. Chapter 5 suggests the moral ways to regulate the goodness of socialist political power from the perspective of behavioral goodness. The conclusion is to analyze and predict the current and future changes of the goodness of socialist political power.Chapter 1 concerns how to define such concepts as political power, goodness and the goodness of political power. Political power refers to the abilities of ruling classes and cliques to control certain political objects by political means to realize their gains and principles. It may be understood both in a broad sense and in a narrow sense. Broadly speaking, political power includes the power of state, the power of parties, public power, etc. Narrowly speaking, political power refers only to the power of state. What this thesis analyzes is political power in a broad sense. Seen horizontally, political power covers legislation, administration and jurisdiction, while seen longitudinally, it includes the power of the central government and that of local governments. Goodness is a moral category that covers the dual properties of fact and value with the latter being the dominant factor. The category is ?intended for the well-being, convenience and development of the society, other people and ourselves. Political power is neutral itself. It is not something that can be clarified with goodness or badness. However, it will change with men. Political power may be clarified by the pluralities of goodness and badness when men of power bear the colors of goodness and badness. Political power should be used in a proper way to improve the good of the state and the people, which implies that the form of goodness and the content of goodness as well as the consciousness of goodness and the conduct of goodness are intrinsically unified. Thus, the goodness of power reflects the unity of the prescriptions concerning goodness and...