A Research On Administering The Country According To The Constitution From The Viewpoint Of Public Reason

Any good governance of human society could not exist without one set of acknowledged normative body. At the national level, it undoubtedly should be constitution that has become a consensus in contemporary society. However, how could it be possible to govern the country by constitution? How to clarify this issue from the theoretical perspective? Contemporary public rationality theory provides new perspective for our research.Public rationality is a kind of philosophy which contains abundant philosophical connotation; it also is the development with the most philosophical meanings and innovation in current political theories. Through deep research and extensive expansion by several western scholars like Rawls, Habermas and Gerald Gaus, etc, it has become one of the core categories of modern political philosophy and public philosophy as well as the legitimacy foundation of public life. To form a benign development trend with negotiated coexistence under the influence of basic national conditions of differences in diversity competition is conducive to establish a good operating mechanism with fusion governance and co-development in the fields of national public power and citizens’ personal rights.The ways of ruling the country in history did not jump out of two ways: Rule by Men or Rule of Law. Rule by Men, based on individual will, often results in personal arbitrariness and serious consequences; while Rule of Law, a kind of rational governance, is more likely to lead a country on the path of law-based governance. However, constrained by individual interests, personal rationality tends to cause “prisoner’s dilemma” which keeps the personal and social interests from maximum. Therefore, only the public rationality based on the cooperative game can guarantee the maximum of individual interests and social interests. In diversified social life, the realization of public rationality way for running the country depends on national power. Furthermore, there would emerge many contradictions and conflicts between individual rights and state power in specific practice process. Accordingly, to deal with various conflicts of interests, it is essential to set a boundary and establish an authoritative criterion by rule of law approach, while constitution, the reality of public rationality, undertakes this important function. Only taking constitution as our benchmark could individuals, society, and the state find out a supreme principle as their basis and finally realize their different interests. In this sense, the core of governing the country by law is to govern the country by constitution, which apparently requires related theoretical basis, basic mode, institutional guarantee and support of public sphere and civil spirit.