The Politics Of Pursuing The "Middle Way"

Oakeshott had been trying to excavate the essence of modern European politics underneath numerous political realities,paying close attention to the political life of people in modernity.According to Oakeshott,modern politics is a complex mixture demonstrating two indirectly contradictory characters at all levels,with the dominant rationalism since the Enlightenment at one side and at the other,the traditional,historical,practical empiricism firmly suppressed by the former.The serious imbalance between these two elements is a prominent feature of modern politics,the symtons and the cause of which were analyzed and criticized by Oakeshott,who suggested that it would be necessary to restore a dynamic equilibrium of the political world by reiterating the value of empiricism in contrast to rationalism.Such equilibrium points to a politics of middle way,the keynote of Oakeshott's political philosophy.In reviewing of Oakeshott's theoretical system,this politics of middle way can be discussed from three aspects:political concept,government role and state form.First,from the perspective of political concept,rationalism has dominated the political field,compared with empiricism.Therefore,the key point of "Middle Way" is to restore the balance by seeking sympathy and hints from traditions that were once abandoned.Second,as for the role of government,governance also presents two extreme tendencies,which were labelled by Oakeshott as the politics of faith and the politics of skepticism.The former's self-expansion trend engulfed any possible attention to the latter.The remedy was to reaffirm the virtues and values of politics of skepticism and to set the government's role as the limited governance.Third,on the level of state form,two extreme social community organizations,enterprise association and civil association,were depicted with the former being the overwhelming mainstream in modern states.The restoration of the balance depends on reemphasizing the embedded values of the rule of law in the civil association so as to protect real individual freedom.Taking the middle way as a clue,a new perspective to Oakeshott's political genealogy is provided,which may enrich our interpretation of political participation,deepen our understanding about the current political life.In terms of theoretical value,Oakeshott's middle political philosophy restricted the scope of governance and,in essence,redefined political reality,which could better accommodate the pluralism and diversity of modern politics.However,this middle political philosophy is confronted with an inner dilemma.Oakeshott's criticism on political rationalism rejected all political argumentation with ideological characteristics,which may lead to parochial and prejudiced tendencies,rendering his political proposal for rule of law unfeasible.