A Research On The Positive Functions Of Political Distrust In The Transitional Period Of China

China is now experiencing the period of transition from a traditional society to a modern one, which triggers lots of social problems, among which the conflicts between the government and the public is especially worth discussing. The truth is that a phenomenon of mutual distrust has emerged in the reality. History tells us that either a extremely high or a low political trust will do harm to the continuality of the political power, hence making it significant to study theories on political trust, and apply them in the analysis of the current situation in China, the causes of it and its outcomes. Since existing researches focuses on the positive functions of political trust, meanwhile ignoring that of political distrust, this paper picked the angle of the positive functions of political distrust, mean to correct a unilateral view of point and improve researches on political trust, on the basis of which a positive and instructive discussion about the situation in China will be raised.In the introduction part of the paper, a review of existing researches on this area will be presented, and the research angle, research methods and the structure of the paper will be given, as well as the significance, feasibility and originality of the study.The first chapter of the paper focuses on explanations of important conceptions, including the definition, characteristics, and different levels of political distrust, its relation with political trust, and its functions. Political distrust is an incredulous attitude held by the public towards some factors of the political system-----officials, policies, government, system, ideology or the concept of politics, or a subjective conjecture that the behavior the forgoing factors will not confirm to their expectation. Political distrust has the characteristics of expectation, risking, subjective, target-orientated, hierarchical, dialectic and indirect. Political trust and distrust are interdependent and interchangeable. The existence of political trust relies on that of political distrust, while political trust makes sense with the existence of political trust.The second chapter analyzed the current situation and causes of the political distrust in China. Due to the reasons from four aspects, including the subject, object, environment and medium, the political distrust in China presents 4 trends:from emotional level to action-implementation level, from inflicts of direct benefits involvers to non-direct ones, from a factor of social instability to a factor of social instability.The third chapter describes the positive functions of political distrust in the background of China. The reality of indirect democracy determines that political distrust is a normal phenomenon, the existence of which holds considerable significance to the sound functioning of democracy and the realization of popular sovereignty, including the functions of defending people's basic rights, the function of supervising the government, the function of limiting the right of the government, the function of alerting, the function of enhancing rational choice and the function of dredging conflicts.The fourth chapter discusses the institutional guarantee of the realization of political distrust. Certain conditions must be provided to realize the positive functions of political distrust. On the basis of the six functions of political distrust, practical institutional construction is recommended in this chapter.