论自由、民主与专制及其相互关系——从《炎黄春秋》关于民主与专制的讨论谈起

摘要

Freedom is an inherent character and a constitutional characteristic of mankind bestowed by nature. Freedom means ruling by self. Democracy means that people require and seek for realization of ruling by themself in national affairs. Both democracy and despotism in terms of state regime are tools of distributing political resources. Democracy is more advanced than despotism as a ruling technique of country. Election is only a part of democratic system. It is a misunderstanding of democracy to equate election with democracy.%自由是人与生俱来的本质规定,是大自然赋予人和人类的本质特性。自由的含义是＂自己作主＂,民主则是民们在国家事务中要求和实现由自己作主。作为国家制度的民主和专制是分配国家政治资源的工具。民主制是比专制更先进的治国技术。选举只是民主制中一个方面的内容,把选举等同于民主是对民主的误解。