西方民主政治中的妥协精神

在西方,妥协不仅是民主政治中的常见现象,而且也获得了文化上的认同,在许多国家成为公众和社会珍视的价值与传统。之所以如此,是因为妥协被认为与西方社会的两个核心理念———自由、民主有密切联系。就它与自由的关系而言,妥协是暴力之外唯一有效解决冲突的手段,以妥协方式解决冲突是自由民主政治的基本价值取向,妥协因而被认为是自由不得不付出、并且也值得付出的代价;就它与民主的关系而言,妥协与人民的同意、保护少数等民主政治的核心理念是一致的,妥协精神对保证西方民主政治的健康运行有着重要意义,是民主的重要精神条件。

The Spirit of Compromise in the Western Democratic Politics

In the West,compromise is not only a common phenomenon,but also has been accepted by western culture.In many countries,compromise becomes the value and tradition cherished by the public and society.The cause of this is that compromise is considered to be closely related with liberty and democracy which is the two key ideas of western society.As for liberty,compromise is the only way to settle conflict except violence,and to settle conflict in a compromise way is the basic tendency of liberal democratic politics,so compromise is the price that has to be paid for liberty.As for democracy,compromise is consistent with the key ideas of democratic politics such as people’s consent and protecting minority, so the spirit of compromise has some important significances in ensuring the healthy operation of democracy,so it’s said that compromise is the important spiritual condition of democracy.