천두슈(陳獨秀)의 민주주의 사유와 질문들

Abstract

This article's purpose is to examine Chen Tu-hsiu's central themes of democracy both in thought and practice and reveal how they can be seen as a momentous source in today's society. Through numerous historical events, such as the New Culture movement, the May Fourth movement, formation of the Chinese Communist party and Chen's expulsion from it, Chen's imprisonment and disimprisonment, and to his latter years, the main theme of his eventful life had been democracy. Specifically, it involved the question of how could an establishment of a true democratic constitutional republic be made possible in practice. For Chen, founding a truly democratic constitutional republic meant that there would be the birth of democratic people whose modern mind must be equipped with thoughts of independence, freedom, and equality, as well as rectification and improvement of the political, economcial, and social institutions to allow the people to engage in political activities as new political subjects. This would become possible only through the completion of a democratic revolution. Chen revealed his strongly critical views on the aggressive and oppressive nationalism, and he proclaimed his cosmopolitan vision of the world where humanity could come together beyond the national barriers as the vision of the people of a democratic republic. Chen’s viewpoint and attitude are significantly distinguished from those of his contemporary progressive intellectuals, who showed little interest in or held negative views about democratic values and people’s rights as political subjects and only upheld “liberation” and “prosperity” as absolute values. In this article, I argue that Chen’s democracy in thought and practice is meaningfully comparable with Hannah Arendt’s democracy. This article illuminates how Arendt’s political philosophy’s central concepts, such as “political freedom”, “public sphere”, “a new beginning”, “plurality”, and “a loyal opposition”, shed a light on the meanings of Chen’s democracy, including Chen’s argument for people’s self-governance, his emphasis on procedural democracy and the right to oppose factions, as well as his criticism against dictatorship and fascism. By doing so, this article also aspires to reflect upon the relevance of Chen’s thesis and the questions it newly offers us in today’s society.