柏拉图与孙中山:政治权能关系的跨时空思考

民众和精英谁该掌权?这是柏拉图对话的一个重要主题,可称之为"柏拉图之问"。在《普罗泰戈拉篇》中,普罗泰戈拉主张民众应该掌权,因为神所赋予人的政治德性是人人有份的;在《国家篇》中,柏拉图主张精英应该掌权,因为政治智慧只有极少数人才具有。这两种回答,各有其不足:前者忽视了民众因缺乏能力而掌不好权的问题,后者则陷人民于既无能又无权的境地。孙中山提出"权能分别"说,成功解答了这一难题。他把政治上的权力分为权与能,主张人民有权,政府有能;把人民的权称为政权,政府的能称为治权,主张人民掌政权以管理政府,政府掌治权以服务人民。这套学说不仅具有学理上的原创性,而且对当代中国的政治改革也具有一定启发性,即让政府因能、绩俱佳而保有治权,把本属人民的政权逐步落实给人民。

Plato and Sun Yat-sen: Reflections on Politics and Power across Time and Space

Who should hold power,people or elites? Plato thinks that both people and elites can hold power,because God gives everyone political nature and at the same time thinks that elites have political wisdom.Plato’s answer is contradictory.Sun Yat-sen came up with the theory of "power and ability",for he divided political power into people’s power and governments’ ability,namely,people having power to manage governments and governments having governing power to serve the people.This theory is innovative with reference to the reform of contemporary China’s political reform,that’s,returning the people’s power to the people.