The Elitism of Bertrand de Jouvenel. A Reinterpretation of Jouvenel’s Political Theory Through the Elite theory
The Elitism of Bertrand de Jouvenel. A Reinterpretation of Jouvenel’s Political Theory Through the Elite theory
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《贝特朗·德·茹弗内尔的精英主义》通过精英理论重新解释茹弗内尔的政治理论。
DOI：
10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n11p15
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
G. Ciampini
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
G. Ciampini
本文旨在从精英主义的视角重新审视茹弗内尔的政治理论。即使贝特朗·德·儒弗内尔通常被认为是一位自由主义哲学家，但我将把他的思想与两个主要的精英主义思想家：加埃塔诺莫斯卡和罗伯托·米歇尔斯进行比较。在茹弗内尔发展的民主的现实主义视野中，民众参与完全是虚幻的。正如加埃塔诺莫斯卡所言，任何社会都是由寡头统治的。不仅整个选举机构不能充分参与政治生活，而且议员们也被欺骗，认为他们可以行使任何权力。此外，根据Jouvenel的说法，它们变成了由一个政治阶级主导的自我参考机构，这个政治阶级利用公共服务来谋取自己的利益。儒弗内尔对现代政党的分析与米歇尔斯的分析较为接近。他们被视为强大的组织，其目的是使自己的统治阶级永久化。从这种精英主义的分析出发，茹弗内尔着重于“共同利益”和“极权主义民主”等概念。共同利益被视为一种修辞表达，以证明福利和再分配政策的实施是合理的，其后果是创造一个肥大的官僚机构。政治寡头利用整个局势，以保持自己的特权。
DOI：10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n11p15
This paper aims to reassess Bertrand de Jouvenel’s political theory from an elitist perspective. Even if Bertrand de Jouvenel is commonly regarded as a liberal philosopher, I will however compare his thought with that of two main elitist thinkers: Gaetano Mosca and Roberto Michels. In the realistic vision of democracy developed by Jouvenel, popular participation is completely illusory. As Gaetano Mosca argued, any society is steadily ruled by an oligarchy. Not only cannot the entire electoral body fully participate in political life, but also MPs are deluded into thinking they can wield any kind of power. Moreover, they become, according to Jouvenel, selfreferencing institutions dominated by a political class which takes advantage of public services for its own interests. The analysis on modern political parties developed by Jouvenel is close to that of Robert Michels. They are viewed as powerful organizations whose aim is to perpetuate their own ruling class. Starting from this elitist analysis, Jouvenel focuses on concepts such as “common good” and “totalitarian democracy”. The common good is viewed as a rhetorical expression to justify the implementation of welfare and redistributive policies whose consequence is the creation of a hypertrophic bureaucracy. The political oligarchy capitalizes on the whole situation in order to retain its own privileges.
DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n11p15