Three Ways To Restrain Power:Non-institutional Constraints And Political Enlightenment Of Traditional Parental Power

"Paternalism" is an important perspective for the academic circles to understand the traditional society of China,but the most of the existing studies highlight the negative aspects,especially the lack of suficient restrictions on the power of parents,which is arbitrary and centralized.Many scholars simply regard "paternalism" as an important factor hindering social development,and even an important source of "Oriental autocracy".However,the facts show that for a long period of time in our traditional society,we have maintained a stable political order and created a brilliant agricultural civilization.Based on the in-depth investigation of the family in the traditional period,the author finds that patriarchy is not completely one-sidedly negative as most studies have shown.In the past,some scholars thought that patriarchy was completely negative because of the arbitrariness and arbitrariness of power.In fact,the power of parents will be constrained by multiple factors in the process of operation,thus forming a rich form of governance.From the investigation,we can see that the restraints of parents are mainly from the three aspects of "responsibility","rights" and "customary conventions".Under the influence of these factors,parents will also moderately adjust their behavior of using power.First of all,although parents have the right to manage their families,they also need to bear the corresponding responsibilities.When making decisions,parents need to focus on family,consider the interests of members as a whole,and bear the risks brought by joint responsibility.So the power of parents must be operated on the basis of the unity of power and responsibility.Second,parents are not the single authority of family governance,because other members can also participate in it.At the same time,the role of parents can also be changed,and the decision-making of parents will be affected by other members,so parents can’t use their power completely according to their own ideas.Finally,under the constraints of family rules,clan rules and customary conventions,the power operation of parents will be restricted within the non-legal system.Therefore,parents can use their powers,but also need to shoulder their responsibilities.They exercise "limited power".Under the background of the same structure of family and country,the traditional patriarchal system has a great influence on the power operation of political leadership.There is an inherent historical continuity and homogeneity between the contemporary political leadership and traditional parents.According to the reference significance of Clifford Geertz,we can learn from the constraints of parental power to restrain political leadership.However,with the social transformation,the consanguinity and closure of traditional society are weakening gradually,and the social foundation of modern society has changed.Therefore,we should pay more attention to the ways of restrict leaders’ power from non-institutional factors to institutional factors:firstly,responsibilities need to be clearly institutionalized,and clarify leadership responsibility by establishing the list of rights and responsibilities;secondly,power constraints need to be normalized,and the negotiation and supervision of other subjects should be consulted in the decision-making process;thirdly,the traditional conventions need to be legalized,and the leading power should be enforced by laws and regulations.