Chapter 30 Introduction to Politics

Introduction to Politics This "Introduction to Politics" written by my friend Dr. Zhang Weici is intended to be used as a senior high school textbook, but it is actually a political knowledge textbook that ordinary citizens should read.When Wei Ci started compiling this book, he considered "common sense" as a standard, so his book focused on the training of political life and the significance of political systems.His choice of acquisition is very measured: what he acquires is the necessary political concepts and institutional history; there are many novel theories that are currently in the experimental period, and he often has to give up what he likes.For example, when Wei Ci was in the United States, he ruled the latest urban system in the United States, which was later used as the title of his doctoral thesis.In this book, however, he says almost nothing about the institution which he has studied most deeply.This shows his prudent attitude.

The benefits of comforting this book, readers will know for themselves.The fairness of his attitude, the narration of his history, and the simplicity and sincerity of his articles need not be pointed out one by one.I accept his kindness and have to read the entire original manuscript of this book first; I agree with the whole book with satisfaction.There is only one point in it, which I cannot completely agree with him.This point is also a very important issue in political science, and it is even more necessary to discuss it in China today, so I bring this point up for a supplementary discussion.

What I want to ask is "Is the political system of the people's government effective in producing good citizens?" Wei Ci said in Chapter 7 of this book: Some people say that good people must be produced by the government of the people or a republic.Only under the rule of the people can the people receive political training and become good citizens.Conversely, if the people do not have the right to exercise politics, they will never be able to get that kind of political training, and they will never have the opportunity to be good citizens. Such a concept may be correct in theory, but it is groundless in fact.The rule of the people or the republic system is by no means capable of producing good citizens alone. Even in those countries with the greatest people's self-government power, political ills cannot be completely avoided. There are actions to oppress the ruled.

We also admit that a good system alone cannot produce good citizens; we also admit that the disadvantages of politics cannot be completely avoided in countries with the most developed democratic system.But Wei Ci's passage does not answer the proposition he cited earlier.People who have always been the most superstitious about the system do not hope that the political ills can be completely avoided by relying on the system alone.In my personal opinion, this issue should be discussed in two steps: first, can the improvement of the system get rid of many political ills?Second, is the system of government by the people effective in training good citizens?

First, countless facts in history force us to admit that system improvement is an important step in political innovation.We cannot make everyone be good, but the improvement of the system can make people dare not do evil easily (this is the basic proposition of ancient Chinese legalists).The reform of ballot papers, from open to secret, from registered to secret, can remove many evils about elections.Elections in China today are extremely bad; if we want to improve electoral governance in the future, we must find a way to start from the system.Let me give a specific example.In the U.S. anti-fraud law on elections, there is an article that stipulates that after the election is over, each candidate must formally report the election fees received in the current election and their use.At first glance, this statute seems to be useless, because we always think that candidates can fabricate reports so as to report more and less.However, in 1912, I personally saw the governor of New York, Sulzer, who was impeached and sentenced to death for missing an election fee.It is true that "law alone cannot be done by itself", but a good and complete legal system is actually an important weapon for good people to clarify evil politics.It is true that treacherous people can use mysteries within the scope of the law; however, a good system coupled with the supervision and enforcement of good people will eventually make the treacherous people useless.For example, today's re-election system allows a small number of traitors to openly trade elections in the name of the primary election candidates.If the system of double elections is changed to direct elections, this kind of business will not be easy to do.Another example is that the great disadvantage of today's elections lies in the falsification and false reporting of the electoral roll.If you want to get rid of this disadvantage, you should pursue the root cause of the electoral roll, which has to be falsely reported.Today, the allocation of the number of members of parliament is not based on counties or prefectures. The electoral districts hold each other and encourage each other, which is treacherous.For example, in the six counties of Huizhou, if the governor of Jixi County reports the actual number of voters in the county, and the other five counties report false numbers, then Jixi County will never have a provincial councilor!Therefore, to prevent fraud in the electoral roll, we should start with the reform of the number of members: the provincial members are arranged according to the counties and districts, and the congressmen are arranged according to the provinces or old government districts.In this way, law-abiding regions will not be held back by fraudulent regions, and campaigns to clarify elections can use law-abiding regions as the standard.Although electoral reform still requires continuous supervision by law-abiding citizens, without this kind of institutional reform, supervision cannot be achieved even if it is necessary, because the reliability of the electoral roll of a county is no match for that of other counties in the same district. What about the floating newspaper?

Second, from the experience of a country governed by the people, we have to admit that the system of the people's government is an important tool for training good citizens.The implementation of the people-government system has gone through two paths: one is the gradual evolution of a nation itself, as in the case of the United Kingdom; the other is to adopt the existing system in other countries, such as many newly-emerged people-governed countries in modern times.Either way, there have been times of great corruption; England, before the great electoral reforms of 1832 and 1867, had also played out very ugly political crimes.The most advanced country with a system of rule by the people is not born with good citizens; the rule of the people in Britain today is also slowly trained by the system.As for those countries that adopt the ready-made system of government by the people, if they wait to adopt the system of government by the people until "the level of the people is enough", then they will never have the hope of government by the people.

The reason why the system of people-government has the possibility of being adopted by other countries is entirely due to the educational function of the system.In fact, this truth is not surprising.The Chinese who are used to using vegetable oil lamps can actually use electric lights; the Chinese who have never organized large-scale businesses can actually organize large banks and companies.Although political life is not as simple as electric lights and telephones, it is actually only a kind of organized life.The life of this kind of organization can be learned.But when it comes to the word "learning", you must have the opportunity to "learn".Anyone who teaches education knows that the best education is field learning.The system of government by the people is the most common educational system, because it is uniform throughout the country, and anyone with citizenship can participate.For this university to be effective, there is only one condition: classes must be held, and students are not allowed to play truant.We often say, what can be said about the twelve years of experience of the Republic of China?This is wrong.Although the National Chengchi University of the Republic of China has had a signboard for twelve years, there are very few days of class, and there are too many students who play truant.There are few days in class, so there are no grades; there are many students who play truant, so it can't be regarded as an official start of school.People who are too weak in confidence, it's not too late to criticize the results after the school officially starts classes.

Western countries have adopted the system of people's rule, and there have been failures and successes.The big reason for failure is either that there are too few classes, or that there are too many truants.In countries that have undergone long-term training in the system of democratic governance, the knowledge and morals of citizens are always much higher than those in other countries.I visited American elections in 1912 and 1916.When I went to the polling place, I got the "proof sheet" of the election ballot. I saw many names and various party emblems on it, and I could hardly understand them.I took the sample votes and asked the voters present to teach me.I purposely picked a few voters who didn't look like high-class people—those who chewed bland mushrooms or spoke with a foreign accent—unexpectedly, they were able to explain it to me in great detail.Those American voters who chew lightly and have a foreign accent, have they read "Introduction to Political Science" or "Instructions for Citizens"?They were born under a republican system, grew up in an atmosphere of democracy, and were trained by the system. They naturally acquired the knowledge that citizens of a country governed by the people should have. Much smarter!

Some people say: "That is just the growth of civic knowledge and has nothing to do with civic morality; maybe those who have civic knowledge are not necessarily good citizens?" My answer is: civic knowledge is an element of civic morality; Popularization is an important condition for the development of civic morality.The lack of knowledge of the citizens makes them easily fooled by a few tricksters.And don't say anything nice about understanding the people's vocation. Simply put, everyone understands the role of the political system, "penetrates the diorama", and knows where the advantages lie and where the disadvantages are. At that time, cheating will naturally not be easy, and the methods of supervision will naturally become more sophisticated.The law to prevent cheating is encrypted, and the chance of cheating is reduced; the progress of civic morality is actually nothing more than that.What "the people's hearts are changing" and "the people's morals are thickening" are just superficial words.There are only two ways to improve civic morality and create good citizens: first, give him a chance to practice as a citizen, that is, to implement the system of people-government; Easy to break the law.

What I have said above is just a little bit of my impressions when I read Wei Ci's book.Why can't Wei Ci see this? It's just that he accidentally focused on what he called "general will", so he underestimated the educational function of the system.Maybe my proposal can be of some supplementary use? twelve, eleven, seventeen Volume 3 of "Hu Shi Wen Cun Two Collections"