Tocqueville and the Political Theory of the 20th Century-An Intellectual History on the Formation of Liberal Democracy

本研究的目的是在新资本主义全球化的历史背景下重新思考托克维尔对20世纪政治理论，特别是自由民主政治理论的贡献和相关性。经济全球化带来了新的贫困和不平等，美国帝国的霸权主义引起了人们对美国民主的怀疑。另一方面，政治民主化在许多非西方国家不可避免地正在进行。在当代世界不断变化的背景下，托克维尔的民主理论需要新的阅读，事实上已经被以各种方式重新解释。在这两年的研究过程中，以下三点被认为是对托克维尔政治理论的新研究中值得注意的。(1)冷战的结束和苏联政权的崩溃确实表明了自由民主对社会主义的胜利，但随后在美国霸权下的经济全球化并没有使美国民主模式在世界上占上风，而是在世界各地引起了对它的抵制。美国近年来出现的一些值得注意的现象，如宗教原教旨主义政治影响的扩大、经济不平等和差距的扩大、社会资本的贫乏、公共精神的衰落等，都要求我们重新审视托克维尔的美国观。(2)托克维尔对后拿破仑时代法国军事官僚专制主义的危险发出警告，他宣称这与他那个时代的美国无关，这对思考当今美国的军事工业复合体具有很强的启发性。(3)托克维尔对日本现代化和民主化历史进程的分析，对于思考当代世界非西方国家的民主化任务是有益的

The aim of this research is to reconsider in the historical context of the globalization of new capitalism Tocqueville's contribution and relevance to the political theory of the 20th century, in particular that of liberal democracy. The globalization of the economy has brought about new kind of poverty and disparity all over the world and the hegemony of the American empire has raised skepticism about American democracy. On the other hand, political democratization is inevitably going on in many non-Western countries. Against this changing background of the contemporary world, Tocqueville's theory of democracy requires new reading and has in fact been reinterpreted in various ways. In the process of this two year research, the following three points have been identified as remarkable in this new approach to Tocqueville's political theory.(1) The end of the Cold War and the collapse of Soviet regime did make clear the victory of liberal democracy over socialism but the subsequent globalization of the economy under the hegemony of the United States has not prevailed the American model of democracy in the world, rather provoking resistance to it everywhere. Recent noteworthy phenomena in America, the growing political influence of religious fundamentalism, the increase of economic inequality and disparity, the poverty of social capital, and the decline of public spirit require the reconsideration of Tocqueville's view of America.(2) Tocqueville's warning against the danger of military-bureaucratic despotism in post-Napoleonic France, which he declares has nothing to do with America at his time, is highly suggestive for thinking about the military-industrial complex of the United States today.(3) The Tocquevillian analysis of the historical process of the modernization and democratization of Japan would be useful for considering the task of democratization in non-Western countries in the contemporary world