研究中国政治秩序的新方法

这篇评论讨论周雪光的《基层政府间的“共谋现象”》和强世功的《中国宪法中的不成文宪法》。两位教授均感兴趣的问题是中国政治秩序的实际运作方式,但却出于不同的原因。周教授把事情的实况——中央与地方关系的运作方式——多少作为已知的事实,从而试图提供一种解释。而强教授执笔的原因正好是因为他认为中国政治秩序实际如何运作,在宪法学界得到的关注实在太少。周教授重点研究了面对来自高层政权的命令时下层不同级别的政府之间的共谋这个专门的问题。他关注的焦点让我们更加注意可能鲜为人知的中央与地方关系的这一方面。但是他讨论的许多问题也似乎不是共谋问题本身,而是一般的委托-代理的冲突。在分析中国的宪法秩序时,强教授的文章呼吁少一些形式主义,更多一些现实主义。在完全承认文章提倡的方法论的优点的同时,评论认为,强教授自己的方法仍带有一些形式主义的因素。

New Approaches to the Study of Political Order in China

This comment discusses “The Institutional Logic of Collusion Among Local Governments in China” by Zhou Xueguang and “Written and Unwritten Constitutions： A New Approach to the Study of Constitutional Government in China” by Jiang Shigong. Both Zhou and Jiang are interested in the question of the way China＇s political order actually functions, but for different reasons. Prof. Zhou takes how things are-in this case, the way centrallocal relations work-more or less as a given, so to speak, and seeks to provide an explanation. Prof. Jiang, on the other hand, writes precisely because he believes that how China＇s political order actually operates has received far too little attention in constitutional scholarship. Zhou focuses on the narrow issue of collusion between different levels of lower-level government when faced with demands from a higher-level authority. His focus is useful in drawing attention to this perhaps ill-understood feature of central-local relations. At the same time, many of the problems he discusses seem to be less those of collusion as such and more those of ordinary principal-agent conflicts. Jiang＇s paper calls for less formalism and more realism when analyzing China＇s constitutional order. While fully acknowledging the merits of Jiang＇s proposed methodology, the comment finds that Jiang＇s own approach retains some formalist elements.