The West System of Delegation and the Chinese Civic Culture

西方代議制所假想的公民文化，在中國文化地區內，沒有歷史的支持，而且這些代議制所共賴的資本主義經濟，和分別源出的封建體制或宗教背景，都不曾見於近代中國的經驗中。故認為將代議制度移諸中國後，就可以發展出成熟的西方公民文化，並不切實際。各地代議政治的變型，見笑於西方的觀察家。不過，來自西方的嘲弄，傳達出矛盾的訊息，即一方面肯定了西方的優越，另一方面也形成潛在的焦慮－似乎西方代議制度的範型，無一可以成為人類歷史共享的標的，則西方文明與落後的非西方地區文化，就成了無分優劣的平行歷史！其無懼乎？因是之故，西方代議制的信仰者，渴求非西方世界出現轉型成功的範例，凡具有代議制模樣的地方，只要能定期選舉，必能滿足西方文明的幻想。臺灣近年來，幾次為了拋掉舊有人情包袱而進行的代議士選舉，恰巧滿足了西方殷切的期盼，致臺灣代議制的文化背景與人情動機，儘管與中國大陸並無太大分野，仍然成為西方民主在中國文化地區的驕傲，這不能不說是對代議制的最大諷刺了。The Western system of deleagation lacks cultural support in Chinese history which has yet to appreciate the meaning of Renaissance, Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution, and the associated colonialism and state building, all important bases for contemporary political systems. However, it is psychologically imperative for western democracy advocates to find alliers in China so as to create the impressions that China would ultimately develop the democratic system of delegation and that China should be contained before its eventual adoption of emocracy. Taiwan has become the proof that the Chinese civic culture will move towards the Westerm model. As a result, the parallels between China's and Taiwan's practices of delegation system are consistently overlooked by the Western scholarship on Chinese political culture. This paper examines these parallels to show that Western illusion of democracy in Taiwan misses the true meaning of Taiwan's political reform