The birthplace of western political thought is ancient Greece. Influenced by Greek culture, especially philosophy, Greek political thought begins with exploring the basis of social and political order, and studying the origin and essence of social and political order has become one of the traditional characteristics of western political thought. This abstract theoretical thinking mode started from the political point of view of answering why and what, and did not change until the western19th century.
The history of western political thought can be said to be pluralistic and evolutionary. Horizontally, he is basically full of factions and schools in various historical periods; Vertically, he experienced the evolution of different political views. Throughout the history of western political thought, I think it has gone through several stages: natural political view, theological political view and right political view. All kinds of political views do not exist only in a certain period, but only reflect the typical political views in a certain period.
Natural political view is the basic political view of ancient Greece and Rome. Ancient Greece is the birthplace of western political thought, and it is also the foundation period of western political thought. From the beginning, Greece has formed a dual pattern of division between God and man. In other words, man has created a world of gods according to the structure of the human world, and they exist independently and do not interfere with each other. Thinkers began to explore the origin and laws of the universe very early, and later developed to explore the origin and laws of society and country and the reasons for the establishment of political order. Their basic answers generally believe that political order is naturally formed due to the inevitable requirements of social development. That is to say, whether they think that the emergence of society and polis is due to the need of social division of labor (such as Plato) or the result of social development (such as Aristotle), they all regard the establishment of political order as the inevitable need of the development of human society. It is not only a part of nature, but also formed naturally.
Rome is a pragmatic country. His thoughts and viewpoints, including political thoughts, basically accepted Greek thoughts and practiced them for Rome. It stands to reason that Cicero is a "Hellenistic Latin" and an "intermediary" to introduce Greek culture to later generations. The Romans put forward the thought of * * * and the state, but other thoughts were far less developed than legal thoughts, which had a great influence on later generations.
As another embodiment of natural politics, it is the thought of natural law. As early as in ancient Greek natural philosophy, the idea of "logos" was put forward to explore the laws of things. This is the bud of western natural law thought. By the time of Greece and Rome, a systematic thought of natural law had been formed. That is, people can understand the development law of nature and society through rationality. This thought has become an important viewpoint in western political thought, and it has continued to the later generations.
People attribute the ancient western political views to ethical political views, holistic political views, natural political views and so on, and we also say so. I think this also reflects the characteristics of ancient western political thought, and it is all possible. However, in order to unify the induction of ancient, medieval and modern political views with the source of the establishment of political order, the natural political view was used.
Christian theological political view is the basic political view in the Middle Ages. Since the Germans destroyed Rome, they have entered the western European continent. Since then, Europe has entered the Middle Ages. At that time, there were the coexistence and integration of Greek and Roman culture, Christian culture and Germanic culture. However, with the expansion of Christian forces, Christian theology, which originated in the late Rome, has developed into the basis for people to observe all problems, and all ideologies are subordinate to him. Of course, political thought is no exception. Both the concept of safeguarding religious rights and the concept of safeguarding secular rights are based on the history of the Bible or Christianity. Even "generally speaking, all attacks on the feudal system must first be attacks on the church, and all revolutionary social and political theories must also be theological heresies." [Complete Works of Marx and Engels, Volume VII, 40th1page]
It should be pointed out that although the theological world outlook enveloped the Western Middle Ages, we should also see that the political and ideological traditions such as equality, freedom, democracy and the rule of law handed down from ancient times have also been preserved in different forms. This is worth discussing and studying.
The political view of rights is the basic political view of the west since modern times. This political view basically began in 15 and 6 centuries, formed in 17 and 8 centuries, and has been developed until now.
The concept of right originated from ancient Greece and Rome in the west, especially during the Roman law period. However, the concept as the basis of political order is a modern thing.
During the Renaissance, humanists began to observe society and country with "human eyes". Later, the concept of "talent * * *" was put forward by further combining rights. In other words, every equal individual has inherent and inalienable rights. People form a political society and establish a political order in order to safeguard this individual right. This view is the political view of rights. That is, Engels said that "it is * * that replaces dogma and theocracy, and it is the country that replaces the church." The previous economic relations and social relations were recognized by the church, so they were once thought to be created by the church and dogma. Now these relationships are considered to be rights-based and created by the state. Therefore, the question of "right and power", that is, how to use the power of the public to realize and protect people's natural rights, has become the central issue of modern western political thought.
The political view of rights is the mainstream of modern western political thought. However, due to the historical development and evolution, this political view has also gone through three stages, which can be summarized as follows: (1) it should be; Tobe will be "what should be", "what should be" and "what will be".
17/8 century is the period of bourgeois revolution, which is the "should be" stage. At this time, advanced thinkers of all classes, strata or groups have accused and exposed the feudal system and * * * * ism as systems that "destroyed" and "destroyed" human nature, which did not meet the requirements of rationality. So as to put forward various ideal systems that meet the requirements of rationality to replace feudal society. In their view, under the guidance of reason (natural law), people should re-establish an external power political body (country) that can protect individuals' "natural rights" through agreement (contract). Although every thinker's content about * * * * is not exactly the same, it generally includes life, property, freedom, happiness and security, and all take the protection of individual property rights as the primary right. Although every thinker has different political forms, they generally put forward the ideas of democracy and the rule of law.
At this time, the purpose of advanced thinkers is to oppose the enlightenment and the * * * system advocated by feudal theology, eliminate the heavy shackles imposed by the outside world, and emphasize the inner strength of human beings, thus extending human natural rights and rebuilding society. However, they regard "humanity" and "* * *" as abstract concepts of "forever and everywhere", regardless of historical development and changes. At the same time, starting from abstract reasoning, they regard civil society as a garden of individual activities, and the state is a consortium formed by individual citizens through agreements (contracts), and regard the political form they envision as the only rational organization.
From19th century to the beginning of 20th century, it is a "real" stage. At this time, major western countries have successively established capitalist systems and modern countries, and many countries have also begun to realize the "industrial revolution" and transition to industrialization. However, with the passage of time, the inherent contradictions of capitalism are increasingly exposed. The "kingdom of reason" is not ideal, especially for the working people, it has not brought the promise of "* * * *" and won "happiness". At this time, there was obvious division and opposition in political thought.
The bourgeois thinkers in the mainstream position began to get rid of "ideal" and face reality, and turned from rationalism to positivism and pragmatism. In order to further consolidate and improve the established political power, various reform schemes were mainly put forward in the nineteenth century to make suggestions for establishing a sound political system; After entering the 20th century, with the improvement of the political system and the strengthening of the government's economic intervention, studying and standardizing government behavior has become the theme of political thought. The bourgeois political thought in this period has always been to demonstrate the rationality of reality, from discussing how the country should (should) change to explaining what the real regime should (should) be and how the current regime should operate. In order to ease contradictions and stabilize order, "order" and "security" have become the main slogans.
On the other hand, as the opposite of the bourgeoisie, the proletariat has gradually changed from a comfortable class to a self-sufficient class. Ideologically, they not only criticized the existing capitalist system, but also demanded the establishment of a better new socialist system, and even demanded the establishment of their own political power by violence. Marxism, the scientific ideological weapon of the proletariat, was finally established. He put forward a complete scientific theory for the proletariat to realize the complete liberation of itself and all mankind. Later, Lenin further combined the new development of the world and the situation in Russia to develop Marxism and founded Leninism.
The new stage of western political thought development is from "what is" to "what will be". After the end of World War II, the world developed rapidly and the world pattern changed. The western world has made new progress in economy, entered the so-called "second golden age" and realized the so-called industrialization or modernization era. Science and technology have advanced by leaps and bounds, and many new scientific fields have emerged. In particular, the development of electronic computers has prompted the society to step into the era of knowledge economy, affecting people's production and lifestyle. Politically, people hate fascist rule, and democratization has become a world trend; The emergence of socialist countries, the rise of national liberation movements and the formation of nation-states have shocked and influenced western countries, and at the same time curbed American hegemonism. At the same time, the chronic disease of capitalism in western countries has not disappeared, but has intensified with the progress of society, and many new problems and contradictions have emerged.
In this situation, western political thoughts are more diverse and present many new features. But the general direction is nothing more than two aspects. On the one hand, it still focuses on the idea of maintaining and developing the existing system. No matter what the theoretical basis of various schools of political thought is, the transition from "descriptive research" to "intervention research" has been completed at this time. In other words, all factions contribute to the government's domestic and international policies. Or provide a theoretical model, or provide some ideas and countermeasures for the formulation and implementation of realistic policies. On the other hand, some factions and thinkers began to expose and criticize the shortcomings of modern society. At the same time, they put forward that western society has entered a "post-industrial society" or a "post-modern society". Accordingly, the original social structure and organization can no longer meet the requirements, and some people even think that the original society has been "deconstructed" and needs to be rebuilt. So as to put forward a set of their own "will" ideas. It must be pointed out that, fundamentally speaking, these "assumptions" are not divorced from the tradition of western political thought.