On C.B. Macpherson's Theory Of Democracy

C.B.Macpherson is a western Marxist philosopher and democratic theorist. He is considered to be a representative figure of modern participatory democracy. Macpherson holds that democracy embodies the broad and narrow meanings. Democracy is taken as a system of government or the legitimacy of government in the narrow sense, which means a system of choosing and authorizing government. In the broad sense, it means equality of the community in which a human being is able to achieve self's development and improvement equally.Macpherson analyses and criticizes liberal democracy with the ideas of Marxism. And on this, he offers the model of participatory democracy which aims to rid of the contradictions of liberal democracy. He points out that Possessive Individualism is the base of liberal democracy. Liberal democracy is soaked with the postulates of Possessive Individualism. Man in the Possessive Individualism is an appropriator, a consumer, and a maximizer of utilities. There exists the unequal transfer of man's power between individuals by property of means of production in the liberal society (or the capitalism society). Liberal democracy preserves this kind of transfer of man's power, and it also safeguards the possessive individual and all the market relations which appear in the possessive market. Man can't achieve self's improvement equally in it. Therefore, Liberal democracy can't achieve the value of democracy. Liberal democracy and democracy aren't compatible with each other. In Macpherson's opinion, the key to it lies in Possessive Individualism and Possessive Market. They change people's consciousness of themselves and make the society unequal. The method of achieving an equal, free, and justice society is to transform the unequal transfer between men and rid of the Possessive Individualism. His model is a combination of direct participation and representative system. The model of participatory democracy is a modified model of liberal democracy in the modern world.