Differentiation And Circulation:a Study Of Habermas'S Theory Of Political Power

The model of the differentiation and circulation of political power,which is th e theory model of political power proposed by Habermas,is the rese arch object of this thesis.According to Haberm as' s assumption,in a dem ocratic and legal state,the political power should get differentiated and forms a power structure based on discourse theory.This power structure,in a v ery clear and creative way,not only separates the political system from society in structur e,but also connects them by Haberm as' s circulation of power.This power structure forms an intertwined two-level com plex of political power.They are s ocial power,communicative power and adm inistrative power on vertical level;power of legislative system,power of administrative system and power of judicial system on horizontal level.Am ong these forms there is a circuit of power which flows from social powers to comm unicative power,then to administrative power,and finally to social powers,form ing a circulation of power.This is Haberm as' s model of differentiation and circulation of political power.Of course,the above statem ents are Habermas' s basic ideas extracted and summarized by this study.In Habermas' s works(mainly Between Facts and Norms),this theory model is too much scattered and obscure in discussion.Actually,in Between Facts and Norms,this model,which is hardly recognized,is often involved in,even overwhelmed by the interpretation of the topi cs on the theories about law,democracy,rights,morals,etc..In view of this feature of the object of study,and in accordance the content of Habermas' s model of the differentiation and circulation of political power,this thesis is divided into three parts.The first part includes the preface and the fi rst chapter.It offers a plane graph of Habermas' s model of the dif ferentiation and circulation of political power.Their functions vary.The p reface introduces the significance of the top ic and the general situation of the study and briefly explains some of the controversial concepts and terms.The first chapter outlines Habermas' s model of the differentiation and circulation of political power as a whole,in which th e first s ection analyzes the theo ry of decentralization in the history of western political thoughts,so as to illus trate the foundation of Habermas' s theory of power.The second section brie fly talks about the theoretical features of Habermas' s post-metaphysics in three aspects.The third section,by using three illustra tive diagrams,summarizes the structural features of Habermas' s model of the differentiation and circulation of political power from the perspectives of the static structure and the dynam ic cycle among many of the form s of the political power,summarizing the structural features of Habermas' s theory mentioned above.This chapter places em phasis on the third section.In the secon d,the third and the fourth chapters respectively,the brief plan e graph drawn by the second section will get an in-depth critical discussion.The second part is the body of the thesis,including the main body from the second to the fourth chapter,which analyzes a nd discusses the three im portant links of Habermas' s circulation of political power.Specifically,the second chapter discusses the first link of the circulation of political power.The analysis of the concept,connotation and features of the social power an d the communicative power is included in the first and the second sections of th is chapter.The third section discusses the transform ation and generation m echanism,which m eans the basic features and the transform ation functions of the political discourse,plus the discussion of its corresponding difficulties in logic,and som e amendments concerning the dichotom y of Habe rmas' s communicative action or purpose are also i nvolved.The third chapter discusses the second link of the circulation of political power.It analyzes th e concepts of administrative power and public sphere and discusses the transformation and generation mechanism from communicative power to administrative power.The third link of the circulation of political power is discussed by chapter four.And this chapter analyzes the necessity of the feedback of the adm inistrative power,discusses the basic rules of the administrative power and the internal mechanism of the circulation of power from the perspective of discourse theory.The third part of the thesis is the end of the m ain body.The theoretical value of Habermas' s model of the dif ferentiation and circulation of politic al power is studied here.What the ending tries to convey consists of the following three points.First,as a institutional design,Haberm as' s model of pol itical power creates an essential theory framework for its theories of law,democracy,morals and even the power itself.Second,for the objective of Haberm as' s social evolution and hum an emancipation,the state-society-individual three-level linkage m ode constructed offers a theoretical plan for the interdependent developm ent of th e political or ganizations and the social individuals.Finally,the structure of political power cont ained provides a new idea in terms of the specifications of and counterba lance to political power,which is of great value in theory and practice.The study be lieves that despite various defects and deficiencies of Habermas' s model of the differentiation and circulation of political power,more attention paid to and further st udy and development of it are still of great value.