Explore Issues Of Public Interest

Different from the traditional interpretation by means of description, analysis and interpretation of the public interest, the thesis will to investigate the normative meanings of the public interest such as a discursively theoretical form of which the political philosophy accounts its meaning of "Oughtness" of the concept of the public interest.In light of its normative meaning, the public interest is essentially the radical aims of political actions or the functions of government, corresponding to this definition, its normative meaning refers to political decision, public decision and the evaluative standard of its effect, namely, the political community or state not only maintain its union's safe and its well-ordered proceeding but also provide its citizens with the standard of "good life". There're little difference of the views in different times by the meaning mentioned above. However, the concept of the public interest contains complicate relations representatively among the social-political interest, and the relations arise continually and reduce to the different understanding of the public interest along with the historical development. Before the modern society, the individuals, at his characteristic in the social-political relation, is just such a member as belong to its community, who has to rely on the political community, and has no special interest at relative independence of the others, and then, their definition and understanding of the public interest is based on the concept of reason, so as based on the needs of ruler, they express the conceptions of public interest by means of "common good" or "common welfare". The theorists so defines the public interest as to obey the reason in order to manage the political matters and identify its just order, which regulates political action by establishing the standard that can guarantee members in the political organization to be up to "good life", and which will express political members' happy life as to obey to the reason and order. This is the ancient form of republicanism understanding the question of public interest, that shows the morality of understanding the question of public interest prominently. Since modern times, capitalist industry and commerce made the conflict among individual interests, private interests, nation interests appear time and time, which reduce to incline to conform and justify the understanding the question of public interest from the position of individual or private interest. This kind of understanding shows the inclination of utilitarianism. In a sense, utilitarianism expressed the rational interest appeals of individual or citizens when it understands question of public interest. This tendency is not only different from the tradition of the republicanism but also the tradition of social contract theory. The conditions mentioned above show that people exist difference in the theoretical basis, subject and its position on the understanding the question of public interest. This kind of difference reflects the contradiction between the individual interest and social-political interest that are contained in the public interest. For understanding the meaning of the public interest concretely, we must use the method of public reason to probe public interest from the complex correlation between the "public" and the "interest" which structure the public interest, namely, we must research the constructive content and its nature from the dimension of Publicity, confirm and prove the normative meaning from publicity of public interest.Public reason is the product of self-reflection and development of reason after Enlightment. When processing realistic society-political issue, public reason displays rational form in the epistemology, the theory of consensus and discourse within the cultural context of reasonable pluralism.Public reason is the essential feature of a democratic state. It is the citizen's reason in democratic society. As the reason of man equal sharing the citizenship, it refers the citizen's public reasoning faculty in the public forum when they face the constitutional essentials and the basic just problems. Most of its main function is the public justification. The aim of the public reason is public good, and its subject is public good and radical justice. In contemporary modern society with pluralistic value, even though there is the facts of reason pluralism, when the free and equal citizens face the constitutional essentials and basic justice they could take public discourse on the political value, and then by means of the public justification, the comprehensive views of religion, philosophy and ethics will reach the "Overlapping consensus" to support the a set of view of political justice. The public reason is public in its essentials and contents, in light of a set of views of political justice, its publicity could manifested by means of reasonable thinking and providing the standard of reciprocity. Facing the debate of constitutional essentials and basic justice, the reasonable citizens could comply to the ideas of public reason so as to get rid of some special issue and settle disputes, make a decision, and justify the political decision according to the rule of justice and political value provided by a set of political justice.Studying the issue of public interest with the perspective of public reason, we'll divide the public interest into two terms of "public" and "interest", and regard the essential of interest as publicity. "Publicity" show two subjective forms as individual interest and nation interest, what the former request is interest, right and just realization of them, and what the latter request is public power and its well-ordered proceeding. Correspondingly, the normative meanings of public interest show two levels: the one is the just distribution both the right and interest in social system and the profits and burdens within the social cooperation, which means the distribution of social primary interest as the desirable objects; the one is the regulation to the National public authority which is belong to the subject of the legitimacy of the political power that is essentially get the citizens' recognition, namely, state obtain the reasons to which the citizens comply, by means of meeting citizens' just and reasonable request of interest. The two respects above define the normative contents of the public interest, which means that Rawls' theory of justice and his political liberalism undoubtedly are the most important reference for this thesis.