Republican Political Obligation:a Tentative Theoretical Construction And Logical Review

To some extent,the discourse of political rights has an absolute discoursedomination in the current political discourse market,while the discourse of politicalobligation that is in the marginal discourse status increasingly has a hidden attribute.But it doesn’t mean that political obligation is of no great importance,because thepolitical community who wants to maintain its normal vital signs must need citizensto take the political obligation to provide power support for it.At the same time,citizens who are ’’embedded’’ in political community need taking the politicalobligation,because they can achieve a more profound self-understanding in theprocess of taking political obligation.So to speak,political community is a constitutivebeing for citizens.By checking the republican tradition, the author finds that there is ahigh accordance between republicanism and the topics of political obligation.Thence,a tentative theoretical construction and logical review of republican politicalobligation is not only desirable,but also feasible.In fact,liberalism that is the mainstream ideology does its utmost to suppress oreven deny the discourse of political obligation,because in the liberal view thediscourse of political obligation pursues a kind of collective logic that requirescitizens to deal with the problem from a common perspect.So the individual goodadvocated by liberalism and based on a kind of individualism logic is likely to be atthe expense of risk. Therefore, liberalism questions the political obligation from thethree dimensions of legitimacy,justification and effectiveness.The core ideas of it canbe attributed to such a point:Without individual citizens’ agreeing any political obligation applied by political community virtually all are an interference of citizens’personal freedom,and any interferential political obligation don’t have a binding forceof morality to citizens.Aiming at the questions of liberalism,republicanism takes aspecial defense.The reason why this defense is special is that republicanism bases onnon-domination which is different from the liberal logic fulcrum.Republicanismpoints out that the liberal three-dimensional questions about political obligation allregard non-interference as their logical fulcrum,while the exclusive understanding ofnon-interference constitutes the ’’Archimedes’ Point’’ of liberal logic.Speakingoverall,republicanism mainly makes a powerful theoretical counterattack against theliberal questions around non-domination from two aspects:Firstly,the logic ofnon-domination will urge citizens to make a thick self-commitment that continuallyproduce ’’political obligation’’ for republican political community as its life support;secondly,the logic of non-domination will revise the power logic of republicanpolitical community,while the power will be revised to be an non-dominant andantipower power in in the republican theoretical horizon.The logical framework ofpower revised will handle the problem of political obligation more inclusively.In a manner of speaking,republicanism makes more widly know the inner logicalassociations between it and political obligation by counterattacking against theliberal questions of political obligation.Additionally,republicanism also makes ajustification of political obligation more systematically.From the standpoint ofreductionism,this justification mainly be displayed three aspects:(1)Virtuerepublicanism makes a justification of political obligation through civic virtue,because civic virtue has an intrinsic binding,and whether citizens bear politicalobligation applied by the political community is often a prescribed in item to reach thestandard of civic virtue or not.(2)Citizenship republicanism makes a justification ofpolitical obligation through citizenship,because citizenship has a viscous cohesion.Under the guidance of this power,citizens will perform the political obligation appliedby their political community.(3)Deliberative republicanism makes a justification ofpolitical obligation through civic deliberation,because civic deliberation has anexternal binding,and the political obligation is actually the terms of consensus contract which is reached between citizens and political community by using thenecessary deliberative procedure.The author believes that republicanism promoteslayer upon layer the justification of political obligation in proper order.In a sense,wecan regard (1) as the first-layer justification of political obligation made by virtuerepublicanism at the microcosmic level,and regard (2) as the second-layer justificationof political obligation made by citizenship republicanism at the mesoscopic level,andregard (3) as the third-layer justification of political obligation made by deliberativerepublicanism at the macroscopic level.Of course,the triple justification of politicalobligation is not separate but interconnected,because in the republican view civicvirtue,citizenship and civic deliberation which are related and interdependentconstitute a triunity relationship that justifies the political obligation ring upon ring.Consequently,after the triple justification of political obligation,the logicalassociations between republicanism and political obligation has been demonstrated tothe most degree.It is natural to constructing the so-called republican politicalobligation.On the basis of republican justification of political obligation,this dissertationtries to make a a tentative theoretical construction of republican political obligation.Concretely speaking,the author thinks that republican political obligation should beconstructed in the three different kinds of state in terms of theory:(1)Republicanpolitical obligation as civic patriotism mainly can be constructed based on republicancitizenship and national iden,and it emphasizes that to identify with and love thecountry that gives them the citizenship should be a basic political obligation taken bycitizens.In the process of taking this republican political obligation, patriotism as acivic virtue will play an important role. Nay more,citizens even need to make thenecessary self-sacrifice to achieve the prospective taking effect of this republicanpolitical obligation as civic patriotism.(2)Republican political obligation as roleobligations is taken by the character played by people in participating in public life.Infact, citizen itself is a kind of role play. Usually,people can obtain this role by twodifferent ways which are contract and non-contract.Accordingly,republican politicalobligation as role obligations is divided into contractual and non-contractual.The roles that can be chosen to play by people in participating in public life are not single butmultiple,so this promptes the formation of some special role preference.In otherwords,people prefer playing a role to playing another.So it seems, role preferencemust influence the quality of taking this republican political obligation as roleobligations.(3)Republican political obligation as associative obligations will be takenby people,because they regard the political community which they live in as afraternal community.Considering the affection as such gratitude,love,and so on,theyrecognize the political community has a political authority to apply politicalobligation to them.Objectively speaking,citizen as a member of political communitynot only can get his deserved fair share,but they must also pay their fair share of thepayment.This fair payment can be achieved by taking this republican politicalobligation as associative obligations.Certainly,the three different kinds of state are justideal types,which are often gathered together in the real practice.After reviewing the constructing logic of republican political obligation,theauthor sees that republican political obligation can be constructed in a thin way,aswell as can be constructed in a thick way.As a matter of fact,the thin and thick ofrepublican political obligation reflect the status of political obligation in the twodifferent republican genealogical context of deontological republicanism andteleological republicanism:Instrumental republicanism regards only the compliance ofpolitical obligation applied by political community as a tool,which is the thin ofrepublican political obligation;essential republicanism regards the compliance ofpolitical obligation applied by political community as goal,which is the thick ofrepublican political obligation.It should be pointed out that, although this dissertationthinks of the problem of political obligation from the perspective of republicanism,theauthor doesn’t think that the the problem of political obligation can only be properlytreated from the perspective of republicanism.That is to say,the author doesn’t onlythink that all republican account about political obligation are correct,but the authordoesn’t also think the three kinds of state of republican political obligation constructedby this dissertation all should be taken.The author just wants to show that theconstruction of republican political obligation can meet the practical needs of political community in a way,because the political community is likely to be on the verge ofcollapse without supporting of political obligation.Basically, republicanism answerstwo questions about the topics of political obligation that are concerned urgentlywith by people in its logical framework:One is that why do we have politicalobligation? Another is that what kind of political obligation do we have? The dealingwith the topics of political obligation by republicanism is or is not able to make allpeople satisfaction and acceptance,which is another issue.Undeniably, republicanismhas done and continues to do the unremitting intellectual efforts in this aspect. Therepublican political obligation deserves a theoretical living space that belongs to itsown.Admitting it not only is an objective theoretical attitude that we shoulduphold,but also an idea of theoretical respect to republicanism that we shouldembrace.