Construction Of Modern State: Research On State Theory Of Negative Liberalism

With the development of market-oriented economy and civil society, construction of modern state will inevitably be the direction of development of contemporary China. Compared with traditional states, although modern state is a continuous operating mandatory organization, which successfully has monopolized the coercive power, the goal of the construction of modern state cannot be the construction of totalitarian state. On the contrary, it is mainly developed on the basis of the discussion of the scope of act of state. With all these things considered, and under the current circumstances of China, it will be of great significance on both theoretical and practical aspects to unveil the state theory of negative liberalism and all the problems it faces; it will be beneficial for us to understand the external conditions which market-oriented economy and civil society operate on, and help us to have a better understanding of the tasks China faces in the construction of modern state. In this article, the author will target at the state theory of negative liberalism. First, based on presence of the state theory of negative liberalism itself and its theoretical premise, reflection on the attitude the state theory of negative liberalism has for politics will be unfolded with the perspective of all kinds of social conflicts which may be caused by the diversity people have. Subsequently, problems that the state theory of negative liberalism faces will be revealed and the theoretical and practical significance for the construction of modern state may well be unveiled.As for the historical development the state theory of negative liberalism, a precise and systematic state theory of negative liberalism finally surfaced when it comes to Hayek and Nozick. They separately take their focus on the theory of spontaneous order and individual rights theory to describe the modern state. Despite the differences on their theories, they share the same basic tendency. In their eyes, only the smallest state is consistent with the positive imagination negative liberalism has for modern state. According to the negative liberalism state theory, individuals have to be the start as well as the end. They won't give more than what is needed for freedom or right of human life; they imply that anything that invades and threats individual liberty, individual property and free competition is an action that is of lack of proper evidence and evilly mandatory. According to the negative libertarian, although they acknowledge the necessity of state, they consider the state actions will have legitimacy only when they embody the requirement of publicity; they constrain the force of state under the requirements that are found or produced not by political process: first of all, from positive aspect, they define the force of state as protecting free state or individual right, and restrict it within the realm of not invading the individual freedom and individual rights; secondly, from the negative aspect, from their point of view, whatever reasons for magnifying the smallest functions of a state will not take on the'publicity', because that will infringe individual liberty or rights. As a result, whatever activities that try to provide evidence for magnifying state function is dangerous.According to negative liberalism sate theory, political science can't be named after rationalism and universalism, so political science can't be defined by any scientific theory or reasoning method. From their point of view, political activities are a special social phenomenon, in which the political activities are full of competitions and conflicts of individual will or interest. As a result, whether it is democratic activity or non-democratic activity, the result always suggests that some individual or group tries to reflect their own special will, and this often predicts constructing some arbitrary, pragmatic mandatory power relations. And these arbitrary, pragmatic power relations are bound to evolve into threats to diversity. As a result, negative liberalism state theory holds a suspicious attitude toward politics, and they extremely distrust political activities which result to their nonsupport to political activities. All in all, in negative liberalism state theory, any political activities will evolve the power that reduces the legitimacy. They are strongly against the idea and the practice of demonstrating the legitimacy by political approach. As a result, they suppress the social conflicts caused by differences and diversities of people within the private realm.In modern political philosophy, we are sure that other than the Anarchists all the ideologists who criticize the state theory of negative liberalism are trying to demonstrate how a state acts with justice, focusing on the political action. There are various competed thoughts on the debate about how a state posses justice through its action .At an extreme abstract level, those competed thoughts show us the arguments over various theories of modern states. The arguments show differences in following sides: 1) according to the political theory which is guided by the public interests and common good, political action aims to construct a truth in the universality value in a manner of rationalism or near-rationalism. These truths are effective for all independent groups in different historical backgrounds and cultural tradition. If we can discover or produce reasoning the knowleges of justice with the meaning of non-excludability, certainty and substantiality, people can judge state action's justice by those knowledges. 2) According to the political theory which is characterized by "diversification" and "competition", instead of possessing the knowleges of state action's justice with the meaning of non-excludability, certainty and substantiality, people would show an conflict based on different ideas, So, the question about how a state act should be discussed and determined in the realm of democratic politics. Besides, only continuous democratic discussion and determination can ensure an enough justice quality to state action.Actually, in present political philosophy: on the one hand, all descriptions towards the justice of state action can be summarized sensationally to a description towards modern states, for the analysis to the justice of state action essentially equals to the understanding towards modern politics. On the other hand, just because of the different ideas towards modern politics, people describe modern state in different ways. However, various society facts possibly caused by the fact of otherness and diversity among people will finally enter into the core of politics. Consequently, those conflict facts must lead to"diversity"and"rivalry"in the political field, and become an ineluctable universality. For this reason, as regard to the question of how to construct a modern state should be brought into the political action with diversity and rivalry as its essential quality, to be studied and determined.