Guzhun's Thinking About Democracy And Its Historical Significance

Guzhun is one of the most outstanding thinkers in his time. Living in the mid-20th century, Guzhun suffered from both the left "idealism" and dogmatism; as an intellectual, he had a strong sense of responsibility of finding his people a better life, which gave him the motion to explore historical and cultural background of the development of democracy under the extremely difficult conditions. By thoroughly studying the history of western democratic system, he understood that the western democratic system was the natural fruit of geography, legal system and humanities in its own land. Hence, he realized that there was a serious lack of necessary conditions for democratic politics in Chinese traditional politics and culture, where the main ideology has been official historian culture for thousand years. The big gap between his idea and the reality in China couldn't make him feel pessimistic, on the contrary, he committed all his life in searching a proper way for Chinese democracy. By these analyses, the author tends to indicate that Guzhun didn't tell us how democracy would take root in China, but he pointed out the social conditions for democracy and the relationship between market economy and democracy. That is the great significance of Guzhun's thinking about democracy, especially to modern China.