Abstract

The author of this discussion intends to challenge the dominant doctrines of democracy, which maintain that democracy is meant to represent a fixed and ahistorical structure of government primarily instantiated in the Western and Western-influenced countries. The discussion is focused on the following two questions: Is democracy simply a form of political government, or does it embrace the more complex relations of a form of government to a culture? Is democracy the unique product and treasure of the Western culture? This dissertation examines the traditional democratic doctrines, such as Locke's and Rousseau's, and the more contemporary ones, such as Dewey's and Macpherson's, along these lines. Based on the survey and analysis of these philosophers' notions, this dissertation proposes a historical, dialectical and functional notion of democracy. It then tests the applicability of the functional notion in an examination of the heritage of democracy in Ancient Chinese culture. This dissertation reaches a preliminary conclusion to the effect that democracy actually is a process of democratization, and that the entire human race incessantly strives to promote this process and reach the highest forms of human flourishing