On Political Compromise

This paper is divided into five parts. People frequently regard"compromise"as a derogatory term and equate it as"surrender","betrayal","no principle", we analyze the concept of"compromise"and"political compromise"in the first part of the article and think"compromise"is a neutral term, which is a concession made by the related parties in order to achieve the most important objectives with each side giving up some of its demands. The facts that people are restricted by the survival law, people exist as social animals, as well as the conflicts and contradictions are inevitable, make compromise necessary.Part II: the theoretical basis of political compromise is elaborated in detail. The political compromise is a peaceful and effective way to solve disputes and conflicts. It has profound foundation on religious, epistemology, human nature and value pluralism. First, the Christianity, as a mainstream religion in Western countries, has a profound impact on the Western countries'ideological and cultural fields. Political compromise has developed into an indispensable component of democratic politics from the religious tolerance concept. Second, people are born with reason, but limited at the same time. The limitation of human reason is mainly about cognitive ability and knowledge's limitation. This limitation provides a space for personal freedom, as well as the conditions for compromise. Third, humanity has the "evil" side with limitations and imperfect nature. This makes the human society can not be all perfect, and in order to maintain peaceful co-existence and social harmony, there is a need to deal with the contradictions and conflicts in a compromise way. Forth, compromise is an economic method for people to solve problems and reduce conflicts in the modern society with multi-value as its characteristics. Part III: further discussion on the characteristics of political compromise. Political compromise is a fundamental way to resolve the political conflicts, as well as a political strategy within the system framework. Political compromise has tolerance ethos, that is, to solve disputes among rival parties with each side giving up some of its demands with the method of cooperation, dialogue and concession. Political compromise pursuits mutual benefits, that is, in order to achieve a"win-win"but not a"lose-lose"outcome, the rival parties will have to consider comprehensively instead of themselves only. Political compromise is a kind of practical rational choice, that is, the rival parties must put aside the past prejudices and ideology and to maximize the overall interests with a pragmatic approach. Political compromise is a positive attitude with voluntariness, that is, the rival parties need to realize that the benefit of concession is larger than its loss, to make concession voluntarily.Part IV: a discussion on political compromise's value. For political compromise's general value speaking, first of all, it is conducive to integrating benefits. Compromise principle in democratic politics can avoid the extreme state, integrating two or more parties'interests. Then, it will help creating a peaceful politics. Political compromise in democratic politics to a large extent determines it's peaceful, rather than violent. This is because the compromise principle in democratic politics not only avoids the tyranny, but also avoids the violent conflict between the government and the people, which at the same time avoids the violent party struggles. Finally, it is conducive to promoting the system's legitimacy. On one hand, it is unevadable for any political system to expect to obtain long-term stability to avoid the legitimacy issue. On the other hand, political compromise can effectively solve the legitimacy crisis, and promote the healthy development of the political system. For the political compromise with the development of democratic politics in contemporary China, training interest groups'political compromise consciousness and bring it into political system, this will be a strong guarantee for the successful social transition. From three perspectives, which are fairness and justice, democracy and the rule of law and social stability, this paper discusses the relationshinp between political compromise and them. Part V: a brief discussion on political compromise's main difficulties. In the political field, compromise once suffered multiple question, especially in ethic, which dues to political compromise itself is full of variables, as well as individuals often face a choice dilemma. At the same time, although it is undoubtable that political compromise is an adjustment mechanism in modern society, it still has lots of problems on its universality in this more and more cultural diversity and conflicts society. This is mainly produced by some value's"incommensurability"and the inequality of resources and capacity. Finally, one of the major drawbacks of promoting political development in a compromise way is that the government will be stranded in solving some urgent political, economic and social problems, which makes the government less efficiency in decision-making.