论民主的原则、运行机制和内在张力

摘要

At the present, about definition of democracy, there has not been a consistent and definite interpretation in the academia yet. This paper defines democracy as a social institution that performs e- quality and liberty, and takes the principle of egalitarianism and the principle of liberalism as two major features of democracy. The operating mechanism of democracy is the process of mutual gaming of egali- tarianism and liberalism, which, in the realpolitik, asserts itself as the political struggle among clas- ses, sub-classes, interest groups as well as their ideologies. Through analyzing the historical lessons from the failures of democratic politics as a result of the unbalance in the relationship between equality and liberty since the ancient Greece and the dynamic interweaving of equality and liberty in the capital- ist liberal democracy and socialist democracy, and discusses the generality, specification, historicity, Nationality and Internationality of democracy.%民主可以定义为表现平等和自由的社会制度。平等、自由和有序运行是民主的三大原则。民主的运行机制是平等主义与自由主义相互博弈的过程，在现实政治中，表现为不同社会阶级、阶层、利益集团及其意识形态之间的政治斗争。自古希腊以来的平等与自由关系失衡导致民主政治失败。在当代资本主义自由民主中，平等和自由在法制条件下动态交织。民主具有普遍性、具体性、历史性、民族性和国际性。