Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2018, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (1): 134-159.

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Factions and Their Govermance: A Perspective of Hume's Social and Political Theory

XU Zhiguo   

  1. School of public affairs, Nanjing University of Science and Technology
  • Online:2018-01-20 Published:2018-01-20
  • Supported by:

    This paper is supported by The sub-project "The history of political thoughts in western countries" of National Social Science Fund Major Project "History of British Political Thoughts"(No. 13&ZD149); The fundamental research funds for the Central Universities "Hume's social order theory and Its Contemporary Significance"(No.30920130132021), "Jiangsu service-oriented government research and decision-making consulting base" fund.

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Abstract:

The faction conflict and its harm are one of the chronic problems plaguing the ancient Western republican government. The construction of a civilized political order must meet the challenges of factionalism. Based on the observation of the history and the times in the West, Hume started from his empiricist theory of human nature and regarded "factionalism" and its governance as the core contents of social and political theory. Hume believes that factions are rooted in human nature, people's emotional orientation and diversity of beliefs is the underlying reason. Although factionalism can't be completely eliminated, one can rely on the inherent principles of the development of affairs, make the use of various forces and design corresponding systems to control the harms of the factional factions. Hume suggested that factional governance can proceed from three paths:First, the development of commerce, science and the arts can improve people's rationality and mutual sympathy among the people so as to eliminate people's extreme beliefs and promote social solidarity. Secondly, civilized Political order should not rely on civil virtue, but should establish mutual checks and balances between factions. Thirdly, the extremeness of religious factions is a major threat to the construction of social order. In order to maintain the stability of social order, religious tolerance must be advocated on the one hand, On the other hand, we must also establish a system of secular government control over religion. Hume's factional governance theory has a modern vision based on a commercial society. It surpasses thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hobbes. While building social order, On the one hand Hume is committed to weakening and eliminating the destruction of social order by extremist factions. On the other hand, moderate factions become the driving force for social prosperity and development. Hume's theory on factional governance has an important impact on the constitutionalism of the United States and still has important implications for the factional governance in today's society.

Key words: human nature, religion, factions, Hume