The Evolution Of Democracy Theory

Democracy is always a new topic that was said frequently, and the arguments about it have neverstopped. While democracy as early as existed in ancient times, but after thousands of years thecorrection of practice and interpretation of theory made today’s democracy different from ancient andmodern democracy. On the same latitude to discuss democracy, grasp the evolution of democratictheory, to clarify the relationship between multiple democracy, is still worth academia to do a deepdiscuss. It’s very meaningful taking Rousseau, Tocqueville, Marx’s democracy theories as abreakthrough point to explore their intrinsic links, find the development locus of democracy, sum upthe past, and guid the current.Rousseau and Tocqueville made unique contributions to thedevelopment of democracy theory. Their democracy theories represent different pursuits ofdemocracy in different periods. Expanding the democracy theories of Rousseau’s and Tocqueville’s,Marx went beyond on the basis of inheritance. The three democracy theories Constitute acontinuous process of evolution of democracy, which reflects the trend of the development ofdemocracy.Firstly, the definition and discrimination of the meaning of democracy is the premise of thediscussion. In this article, democracy refers to a political theory and system. It is widely believed,democracy is defined "rule of the people". However, the reason why the issue of democracy iscomplicated, first because at different times, different thinkers’ understanding and awareness of the"people" and "rule" is very different; second because democracy in the history of political thought iseasy confused with terms such as freedom, equality, republicanism. According to different criteria,democracy has a variety of categories. The article mainly compare four aspects: direct democracy&representative democracy, protective democracy&developmental democracy, political democracy&social democracy&economic democracy, substantive democracy&procedural democracy. Earlydemocratic attempts are mainly manifested in Athenian democracy, the Roman republic, the Italiancity-state, the British constitutional tradition, and Geneva Republic. These historical practice is asource of democracy theory, many thinkers learn inspiration and derive nutrition from them. Whiledemocratic practices are Conducting, democratic theory are also under development. Before Rousseau,democratic theory has experienced a period of classicism and republicanism into a liberal phase.Rousseau’s democratic ideas belong to the category of liberalism. Hobbes, Locke, and Montesquieurepresentatives the early liberal democratic ideas, and their democratic ideas had a negligible impact to Rousseau and Tocqueville.Rousseau was living in a new era of turn, and himself and his theory was also directly or indirectlypromoted the change of time. Called by the social change and gestated by Enlightenment rationalism,coupled with the unique personal qualities and experience, Rousseau advertised positive democratic.He took democracy as a sword, to target all unequal and unfree, hold high the banner ofEnlightenment, bravely against the old order. Rousseau’s democracy theory buried an old social full ofunfreedom and inequality, open an era of revolution. The theory of alienation and the Social Contractare the base of Rousseau’s democracy theory. Alienation is the core of the entire theoretical system ofRousseau, and it had a great impact to Marx. He believed that the natural state of people enjoyedfreedom and equality. With the social progress, people’s alienation exacerbated inequalities betweenpeople step-by-step. Rousseau constructed the entire political system is designed to eliminate thealienation of human beings, and remodel the value of human freedom and equality. He choose theway to social contract theory. Classical social contract theory development to Rousseau was the thirdstage. Rousseau learned, absorbed, criticized predecessors especially Hobbes, Locke’s social contracttheory, put forward to the sovereignty of the people as a sign of social contract theory. Rousseauadvocated social contract to protect each combination of personal and wealth, and the combination ofpeople liked to obey himself as usual free. In his theory of the social contract, he firstly distinguished"state" and "government" in the strict sense. The democracy Rousseau pursued is direct democracy,developmental democracy, political democracy, substantive democracy. The characteristics ofRousseau’s democracy theory are mainly embodied in the "general will", the sovereignty of the people,direct democracy, civil religion etc.. Rousseau’s thought of "general will" run through an importantprinciple: the will and interests of the people was above everything else. Sovereignty was theapplication and embodiment of the general will, it should belong to all members of the Community.This just was the "people’s sovereignty". Rousseau believed that the introduction of direct democracy,was the form and means in the ultimate realization of the sovereignty of the people. In Rousseau’sopinion, legal and religion was the protection of democracy to be implemented, so he advocated therule of law and i promoted civil religion. In order to prevent the government lose legitimacy,Rousseau also proposed "the right of revolution". Rousseau’s democracy theory was not perfect, thedrawbacks of his theory: the plight of the operation of the General Will and direct democracy, thecontradictions of the "saints legislation", sovereign immunity from legal constraints. We must giveobjective and impartial evaluation to Rousseau: it is necessary to recognize him for his tremendouscontribution to social progress, but also see the development of his theory of discrimination of changeand the social bias. Tocqueville lived in a "democracy is in full sail forward " era. However, in contrast to democracy,he cherished freedom. Tocqueville’s aristocratic origin and personal experiences shaped his politicalthinking uniqueness. The material of Tocqueville’s political thought came from the traditionalliberalism. Pascal, Montesquieu and Rousseau, had great influence on Tocqueville. Tocquevillehumbled to a student of Rousseau, but his democracy theory was almost the opposite of Rousseau’s.Based on the reflection of Rousseau’s active democracy, Tocqueville advocated protective democracy.Their theory was like two sides of a coin. If Rousseau’s democracy theory was a "sword ", thenTocqueville’s would be a "sheath" to the "sword". Tocqueville and Rousseau had many similarities oncherishing equality, pointing political participation, promoting civil religion and new democraticmoral. But Tocqueville didn’t simply inheritance Rousseau’s thought, he made a greater breakthroughin democracy theory. Tocqueville made the democracy theory have a critical development for thedrawbacks of Rousseau’s theory. He saw the possibility of "tyranny of the majority", and agreed withthe representative system, and advocated the independence of the judiciary and decentralization, andso on. His main contribution is that, from the "general will" and "people’s sovereignty" to prevent the"tyranny of the majority", from direct democracy to representative democracy, from " sovereignty isindivisible " to the independence of the judiciary and the decentralization of the rectification.Tocqueville’s greatness lied not only develop the useful and discard the useless the advantages anddisadvantages of Rousseau’s democracy theory, but also its keen insight and accurate foresight. ByVisiting American democracy and combined with the French national condition, Tocqueville saw thebenefits of democracy, found a new ills of democracy, and also made a lot of remedy. Tocqueville’sdemocracy theory occupied an important position in the history of Western political thought. Histhoughts, such as "libertarian","tyranny of the majority","restriction of power by society ", had ahuge contribution and a far-reaching impact. Tocqueville also built a "new political science" aboutdemocracy, which is a significant innovation and contribution to democracy theory. His understandingand insights on democracy was still apply in nowadays and also had strong practical significance. Ofcourse, Tocqueville’s democracy theory in today faces some challenges,which need to rethink by us.Democracy as a core value concept, embedded in Marx’s overall political thought, and constituted acomplete sub-system of thought. Marx’s theory was the "integration" of Rousseau’s and Tocqueville’sdemocracy theories, and beyond the scope of democracy in general, reached a higher level. Marx wasdeeply influenced by Rousseau’s political thoughts, and inherited and developed his democracy theory;he deepened the democracy theory, the level of awareness is higher than Tocqueville. Marxacknowledged the general concept, universal and fundamental form of democracy. And also made agreat contribution in democracy theory. He proposed the concepts of proletarian democracy, economic democracy, the demise of democracy, and advocated the system of combination of legislative andexecutive powers. On the basis of Rousseau’s and Tocqueville’s theories, Marx’s democracy theorywas a comprehensive beyond. It represents the future trend of the development of democracy. In thetime that universal democracy did not exist, Marx put forward to proletarian democracy concept thatachieve the overwhelming majority to gain political ruling. It was beyond the concept of bourgeoisliberalism democracy. Overall, Marx’s views on democracy was multi-layered. He pursued man’s freeand all-around development, linked democracy and freedom; discarded the political democracy, toimplement the democracy principles to the areas of social and economy, put forward the ideal of "truedemocracy", transited formal democracy to substantive democracy; recovered the country by the civilsociety to overcome the dualism between them, made mutually consistent, finally achieved truefreedom and true democracy; not satisfied with the indirect democracy, to gradually expand the scopeof direct democracy, realized that all members were directly involved in the management of socialpublic affairs; not satisfied with the proletarian democracy and dictatorship of the proletariat, but toeventually eliminate all classes as well as the ruling class; not satisfied with a national liberation, butto realize the liberation of mankind. Marx’s democracy ideals and pursuit was different from theprevious Utopian Socialism. The higher democracy of human was not only beyond the capitalistdemocracy, and its realization way and realistic power had also argued by Marx. Practice has proved,Marx’s democracy theory was feasible,fruitful, and scientific. In short, Marx’s democracy theoryoccupies a unique position in the history of democracy thought. It is not only an ideal blueprint, butalso the value goal and value orientation. Marx’s democracy theory is a far from being expandedtheme, and expect people to find more discoveries.Pursuit of democracy is the common ideal and basic political value, regardless of racial andboundaries, everyone can share. However, in China’s political tradition there are thoughts of "peopleis the base", but lack of democracy thought. modern China’s political democratization originated fromthe Western bourgeois democracy thought, under the guidance of all kinds of democracy theory, andbe counted as the derivatives and guinea pigs of the Western democratic theory. Among them,Rousseau’s and Marx’s democracy theories gave us the biggest impact. From the Wu Xu Reform tothe Xin Hai Revolution, Rousseau’s natural rights, people’s sovereignty, freedom and equalitythoughts, had a great influence and played a positive role in promoting China’s bourgeois democracyrevolution. Marx’s democracy thought based on the form of Marxism had huge impact on China’s newdemocracy revolution, and combined with the characteristics of China. Tocqueville’s democracythought had been paid attention to since1980s in domestic. because of late start, our theoreticalresearch of Tocqueville didn’t become a system, and not enough. It need to be tapped, either in breadth or depth.Talking of enlightenment to us by Evolution of democracy theory, must consider the historicalbackground of Chinese traditional culture, and also the impact of the contemporary market economyand the influence of economic globalization. Chinese traditional culture is not beneficial to promotingdemocracy and the rule of law. so if we want to pursue democracy, we must overcome the resistanceof traditional culture and historical traditions, and effort to find the right way out between it anddemocracy, the rule of law. Since the reform and opening up, China’s market economy had greatprogress. Economic development provides a good chance to political reform. We need to think deeplyon the two-dimensional interactive relationship between market economy and democracy politics.Economic globalization is an unstoppable trend, the globalization of the economy is bound to induceglobalization in the field of non-economic, especially political, legal and cultural globalization. Tosome extent, Political globalization is just the global democratization.The pursuit of democracy in ourcountry in modern times has gone through hard exploration and tortuous. Although the developmentof democracy has reached a certain degree, the building of democracy in nowadays is not enough, andalso requires more effort. Combing through the representative of Western democracy theorydevelopment trajectory, combining with the pros and cons of the democratic pursuit and constructionin modern China, we can get a lot of inspiration: such as to make the sovereignty of the people trulyimplemented, to further expand the autonomy at basic level, to breed and give aid to civil society, toharmoniously develop economic democracy and inner-party democracy, to strengthen the rule of lawconstruction. The inspirations have important reference value for today’s building and development ofdemocracy.