近代西方世界兴起原因的再思考(上)——从斯密、黑格尔、马克思、桑巴特、韦伯、熊彼特到诺思、肯尼迪和华勒斯坦

本文对近代一些思想家对西方世界兴起的复杂社会原因的探索做了多学科的综合文献回顾。从而发现,依据亚当·斯密的分工和市场扩展理论,黑格尔与马克思等古典学者认为西方世界近代兴起的主要原因来源于分工和自由竞争所带来的劳动生产率的提高;桑巴特、韦伯和熊彼特则把近代西方世界的快速经济增长归结为企业家的追求和企业无限扩张的资本主义精神;经济史学家诺思认为近代西方世界兴起的根本原因在于私有产权制度和现代经济组织;政治学家保尔·肯尼迪则把这一历史现象归结为欧洲近代历史上的政治多元化和历史机缘;而华勒斯坦等历史学家则从非决定论的理论视角讨论了近代欧洲兴起的天时地利。综观西方学术诸家对西方世界兴起原因的解说可以发现,尽管在这个复杂的问题上存在诸多歧见,但保护产权的法律制度以及支撑法律制度工作的现代民族国家和宪政民主政治的生成是西方世界近代兴起的基本原因之一,这一点乃是诸家的理论共识。

Rethinking of the Causes of the Rise of the Western World in the Modern Time :From Adam Smith, Hegel, Marx, Sombart, Weber, Schumpeter to North, Kennedy and Wallerstein

This paper provides a literature review of multi-disciplines on the causes of the western world in the modern time. While these classical scholars like Hegel and Marx believe that the main causes of the rise of the western world are relies upon the improvement of productivity which come from the division of labor and free-market competition, Sombart, Weber and Schumpeter attribute the historical phenomenon to the capitalist spirit of those entrepreneurs to unlimitedly grow their business. The institutionalist economist Douglass North deems that the fundamental causes of the rise of western world are due to the formation of the private property rights system and the modern industrial organization, a political scientist of Paul Kennedy thinks that the rise of the western world come from political competition of the nation-states of the western Europe, and the historian Wallerstein believes that the collapse of the Roman Empire and the conflict between the Vatican and the secular monarchs in pre-modern Europe have create some rare opportunities for the economic growth in the western Europe in the modern time. An overview of the relevant literature on the issue shows the fact that despite of many conjectures on the causes of the rise of the western world in the modern time, there are some consensus that the formation of the well-functioned legal systems and their underlining constitutional democracy are major contributors of the historical phenomenon.