A Research On Sartori's "Competitive-feedback" Democratic Theory

Giovanni Sartori is a contemporary elite democratic theorist and the collector of western democratic theory,and devoted his life to the study of democratic theory.Sartori is concerned with elite democracy and liberal democracy,and spent his life devoted to defending liberal democratic theory in the West.In order to respond to the difficulties and disputes of the times,Sartori adhered to the core of the elite democratic theory and integrated elite democratic theory with liberal democracy theory.Sartori built a "competitive-feedback" democratic theory on the basis of reconciling the normative and empirical arguments and tried to restore the liberal democracy theory of the western mainstream with his own efforts.This article aims to analyze the establishment of Sartori's "competitive-feedback" democratic theory based on the perspective of elite democracy.The complex 20 th century constitutes the macro context of Sartori's political thinking.The prosperity of mass politics,the proliferation of fascism,the debate about democracy,and the crisis of democracy constitute the subject of democratic politics in this era.The inherent evils of mass politics and the crisis of democracy have caused social turmoil and disorder,shaken the rule of representative democracy and weakened the position of liberal democracy.Therefore,it is not necessary to rebuild the order and authority of liberal democracy with elite politics.As the debate on democratic values becomes more common,regaining the value ideals of elite democratic theory becomes Sartori's urgent task.These constitute the macroscopic background of Sartori's political thought and regulate the basic orientation and development path of the "competitive-feedback" democratic theory.The experience of personal growth and learning exchange constitutes the micro-context of his political thinking,and it has a direct influence on Sartori's political ideology.In the face of the above difficulties,Sartori took Schumpeter's competitive elite democracy,Dahl's pluralist democracy and Friedrich's "anticipated response" principle as the theoretical origins for in-depth consideration.However,the solution to the dilemma is not an easy task.It is necessary to integrate the theory of elite democracy with the theory of liberal democracy,but also to respond to the struggle of the times.Sartori must re-clear the relationship between ideals and reality,and explicitly criticize the people's sovereignty and separate elites from the public.On these foundations,Sartori built the "competitive-feedback" democratic theory from four dimensions: as a "ruled democracy" and "longitudinal democracy",it refers directly to democratic authority and order;as an electoral long-running democracy,it seeks a realistic explanation of democracy;as an elite choice for democracy,it seeks the value ideal of elite democracy;as a "real" democracy,it clearly clarified its features from the opposite side of democracy.The "competitive-feedback" democratic theory clearly incorporates elite democracy and liberal democracy,and clearly reflects the color of elite democracy and liberal democracy.On the one hand,the negation of classical democracy,procedural democracy as the choice elite and the negation of emerging democratic theories all show a strong sense of elite democracy.On the other hand,the supremacy of advocating freedom,the pluralism and tolerant cultural soil and the position of defending liberal democracy all reflect a strong sense of liberal democracy.However,no theory can be perfect,and Sartori's theory is the same.On the one hand,the "competitive-feedback" democratic theory has important historical and theoretical significance: it achieves the coexistence of elite democracy and liberal democracy,and regains the value ideal of elite democracy.On the other hand,based on the perspective of elite democracy and liberal democracy,the limitations of its elite democracy are: legitimacy base away from people's sovereignty;denying the feasibility of direct democracy;exaggerating the gap between the elite and the public.The limitations of its liberal democracy are: paranoid to liberal democracy;equality is submissive to freedom.