Research On Maine's Democratic Thought

Domestic scholars had been paying attention to Maine for a long time,and the research on Maine was still in its infancy.The domestic scholars' research on Maine mostly focused on the study of the book "Ancient Law" or through comparison with Savigny.To reveal the label of its historical jurisprudence.Under the trend of the European democratization movement in the nineteenth century,Maine paid equal attention to democratic politics.The book "Popular Government" had not received enough attention.Although there were many classic works on democracy,such as Mill,Tocqueville and Rousseau,the authors of democracy,but the "Popular Government" by Maine had its own uniqueness and was worth studying.As one of the representatives of the 19 th century historical law school,Maine paid attention to democracy through historical jurisprudence through historical research methods and knowledge derived from the Early Human History Institute.Although the practice of democracy in the nineteenth century had blossomed everywhere,Maine was also soberly aware that there were many shortcomings in the democratic system,even dangerous,which might lead to dictatorship.Therefore,how to practice democracy and how to make democracy develop healthily had become a question of Maine's thinking.The “Popular Government” showed us the image of a rich and lively thinker with real political care,which provided excellent guidance for our more accurate and comprehensive understanding of Maine,and also helped prevent us from treating Maine.An abstract,one-sided understanding of thought.The first part of this paper analyzes the background of the formation of Maine's democratic thought.Since the French Revolution,the anti-feudal wave had been launched throughout Europe,which had promoted the process of democratization in Europe.In the second half of the 19 th century,the democratic frenzy swept through Europe,and the British Isles were not spared.Democracy seems to be an unstoppable fateful movement.Democracy had become a hot issue in the construction of the country.In Maine Wen's view,democracy was the trend of national development,but it was not blindly optimistic about the democratic system.It should pay attention to historical investigation and reasonably analyze the advantages and disadvantages of democracy.The second part discusses the internal crisis faced by democratic governments.From a historical perspective,Maine examined and summarized the three crises facing democraticgovernments,including the fragility of democratic governments themselves,internal threats,and corruption.He used historical methods to examine the state of the public government since its inception,and analyzed and proved the dilemma faced by democratic governments,and pointed out the achilles heel of democratic government.The third part explores the point of view of how Maine treats democracy.With regard to the three types of democratic practice: representative government,referendum,and American democracy,Maine believed that representative government was a real initiative in the UK,but the people can express their opinions by electing representatives to safeguard their own interests.The large-scale parliament was unable to impose a real rule,which was likely to lead to a constitutional revolution.The ills and dangers of the representative government were mainly due to the low level of knowledge of the parliament and the fact that the parliament was controlled by special interest groups and could not truly achieve democracy.Regarding the referendum,Maine conducted Rousseau's democracy from both historical and social perspectives.criticism.Rousseau was based on the natural state in constructing his doctrine.Maine used historical law to find out that there was no such a so-called natural state in history,and in social reality,Rousseau's voting method could not be operated in practice.Regarding American democracy,Maine regarded it was a successful practice of democracy and founded that the success of American democracy benefited from the US Constitution and the federal system created.The fourth part is the evaluation of Maine's democratic thought.First of all,although Maine had criticized the democracy to a certain extent,he was not anti-democratic.Instead,he supported democracy.Maine elaborated on the hard and conservative nature of the US Constitution and highly praised the US Constitution,arguing that the success of American democracy benefited from the US Constitution.The argument of Maine not only pointed out the key to the success of American democracy,but also reflected the true attitude of Maine to democracy.Second,Maine's democratic ideas had historical limitations.Maine's conservatism was consolidated by two aspects: one is the anxiety of the upcoming mass democracy,and the other is the deep scepticism and disillusionment of utilityism in the cause of the empire.In addition,His democratic thoughts were based on the basis of real political life.The realistic political environment and living soil were specific,and the general theory put forward on this basis.Not necessarily so accurate,it would have a certain deviation.In this complex cultural background and aristocratic complex,Maine's democratic thoughts inevitably had historical limitations.