What is the understanding of Huntington's political development theory?

The theory of political development came into being in1950s, flourished in1960s and declined in1970s. Samuel P. Huntington is an important representative of the school of comparative history in western political development theory. His contribution to the theory of political development is not only reflected in the publication of a series of works such as "Changing the Political Order in a Society" and "Difficult Choices" [1], but also in the organization of the Harvard-MIT Joint Seminar on Political Development with Miron Weiner [2]. The seminar started at 1964, and scholars from Cambridge-Boston get together every month to discuss many topics of political development. These topics include: farmers in developing countries, development and ethnic relations, external and international factors affecting development, population and development, and the role of democratic systems and processes in the third world. This has played a key role in the prosperity of political development theory.

Although the theory of political development has declined, its important propositions, concepts and research methods have contributed greatly to the development of political science. Critically drawing lessons from western political development theory is conducive to building a political development theory with China characteristics. This paper mainly reviews the research of Huntington's political development theory and points out the existing problems in order to deepen the research of Huntington's political development theory.

First of all, the research on Huntington's political development theory at home and abroad.

The research on Huntington's theory of political development abroad began in1970s. Because Huntington's articles and works have far-reaching influence on political development and novel ideas, scholars such as Joseph La Palombara [3] and Mark kessel Mann [4] have published book reviews on his works. After the decline of political development theory, scholars such as Vader [5] spoke highly of Huntington's theoretical contribution when reflecting on political development theory. Some scholars, such as Alexandre J. Rouse [6], have made a special study of Huntington's political system theory. The biographies of Huntington's thoughts written by Putnam [7] and Kaplan [8] provide important materials for us to fully understand Huntington's thoughts. In recent years, scholars have paid relatively little attention to Huntington's theory of political development. Lancis Ha Gobian [9] and others mentioned Huntington's theory when commenting on contemporary political development.

The attention of Hong Kong and Taiwan scholars to Huntington's political development theory reached its peak in the1980s. 1982, Taiwan Province Yunchen Culture Company published a series of contemporary political giants, in which Peng's book "The Designer of Political Stability-Huntington" [10] (Taiwan Province Province translated Huntington or Huntington) introduced Huntington's political development theory comprehensively and systematically. Scholars such as Chen Hongyu [1 1] and Jiang Polypropylene [12] also made pertinent comments on Huntington's theory.

Mainland scholars began to study Huntington's theory of political development in the late1980s. Yan Bofei [13] wrote in 1989' s Reading that the significance of Huntington's book "Political Order in a Changing Society" lies in abandoning utopia. 1990s, Zhang Xingjiu [14] and others discussed the theoretical system of Huntington's political development. Wang Caibo [15] and others discussed it from the perspective of Huntington's political development theory. In recent years, Yue Shiping [16] and others have discussed the significance of Huntington's political development theory to building a harmonious socialist society in China.

Second, the system of Huntington's political development theory

Huntington's political development theory involves political modernization, political decay, political institutionalization, political stability, political participation, revolution, reform and many other aspects. How to summarize the system of Huntington's political development theory is the primary problem faced by scholars.

Peng believes that the goal of Huntington's political development theory is political stability and democracy, the standard of political development is political institutionalization, and the driving force of political development lies in political revolution and reform. Peng called Huntington "the architect of political stability". [ 17]

Zhang Xingjiu believes that Huntington's theory of political development includes four aspects: modernization, the root of political development; The goal orientation of political development-political institutionalization; The key point of the traditional political system to realize the change-innovation and absorption ability; Strategies and tactics to achieve development and stability--the combination of Fabian strategy and lightning strategy. [18] Wang Caibo discussed the analytical framework of Huntington's political development theory. These include: political development goals (political integration, political institutionalization and political democratization); The relationship between political institutionalization and political democratization; The relationship between economic change and political change. [ 19]

Yu Hongsheng analyzed Huntington's political development theory from five aspects: the fundamental goal of political development and the means to achieve the goal (political institutionalization), the motive force of political development (political revolution and reform), the organizational guarantee of political development (political parties), the relationship between economic development and political development, and the relationship between political development and political modernization. [20]

Thus, in Huntington's political development theory, scholars' opinions are relatively consistent. Huntington's political development theory aims at political order (political stability, early stage) and political democracy (late stage). The means and standard of political development is political institutionalization, and the driving force of political development lies in revolution and reform. Of course, Huntington's theory of political development is very rich. For example, Huntington's analysis of the role of the army, intellectuals and farmers in political change is also very accurate.

Third, the goal of Huntington's political development-political stability and political democracy

Zhang Guilin [2 1] inspected Huntington's stable democratic view from the perspective of finding a balance between democracy and authority. Huntington analyzed the causes of political instability in developing countries and put forward measures to steadily promote democracy and political modernization: establishing a strong government; Strengthen institutional construction; Attach importance to the special role of political parties in political stability; Attach importance to adopting flexible strategies and tactics in political development. Zhang Guilin believes that Huntington's view of stable democracy does not mean that he does not respect democracy. On the contrary, Huntington is a loyal Democrat, which can be confirmed by his book The Third Wave published in 1989. The difference is that Huntington is a realistic political thinker. He realized from the turbulent history in the modernization process of developing countries that democracy and stability are the precious value pursuit of mankind, and stability is the premise of democracy in developing countries.

Mark kessel Mann believes that Huntington puts political stability at the center, and political decay means the disintegration of political order by the ruled. Huntington did not take into account the political turmoil caused by the ruler. In fact, the political order in developing countries may be more easily undermined by the ruling class. He questioned Huntington's view of political stability and thought that Huntington's reason that political stability takes precedence over freedom was not sufficient. Order must take precedence over freedom, which can be questioned from the perspective of logic and experience. Even if we agree that order logically precedes freedom, it does not necessarily require that order precedes freedom in time. In fact, those countries with strong authority in the early days (such as Prussia) proved to be less free than those countries with simultaneous development of order and freedom (such as Britain). [22]

Joseph Laplombarra also thinks that Huntington's solution to political stability is transcendental and abstract. Huntington's central argument has two related theoretical bases, namely, social forces and public interests. Huntington's analysis of both is unconvincing. [23]

It can be seen that domestic scholars' research on Huntington's political stability is mainly to sort out and explain, and it is not critical enough to look for theoretical nutrition that can be used for China's political modernization in his view of political stability. However, foreign scholars criticized Huntington's view of political stability in detail, and evaluated Huntington's theoretical basis and reasons for its existence.

Fourthly, Huntington's political institutionalization thought and its standards.

Huntington's path to seek political stability is political institutionalization. His argument for political institutionalization is very full and powerful. It can be said that Huntington is a transitional figure from traditional institutionalism to historical institutionalism. However, his political institutionalization thought has also been criticized a lot.

Mark kessel Mann believes that political institutionalization embodies attractive values and helps to enhance public interests. However, these values are unreliable and difficult to operate. Institutionalization and order all involve costs. In fact, the government tries its best to expand these values, but their requirements are different. For example, the conflict between autonomy and adaptability. Strong government can create public interests more than weak government, but it can also hinder public interests more. [24]

Alexander J. Groth used space as an example to illustrate that the four variables of Huntington's political institutionalization are not compatible with each other. When measuring the space of a house, we use three variables: length, width and height. The product of the three is the space of the house. Then, if we want to compare the institutionalization level of different organizations or procedures, we should compare "coherence" with "adaptability"; Or can the variables of "complexity" and "autonomy" complement each other? Do you need them both? Do you want to reach the same level? These are all questionable. [25]

Chen Hongyu thinks it is difficult to have a fixed standard to measure the political institutionalization listed by Huntington. For example, how long will it take for the organizational system to be institutionalized? Can political organizations and procedures be unaffected by other social factors? Can we measure the autonomy of the system? [26] Zhang Xingjiu believes that Huntington put forward the important concept of institutionalization and listed four indicators of autonomy, complexity, adaptability and cohesion, but it is difficult to operate, which makes people suspicious: how does a political system have these four conditions and achieve institutionalization? Yue Shiping also investigated the defects of Huntington's political institutionalization thought: it is difficult to adapt to the national conditions of various countries; It makes people feel difficult to operate, and some places are puzzling; Among the four indicators listed by Huntington, it is biased to measure the level of organizational adaptability by the length of time. Of course, Huntington's political institutionalization thought has guiding significance for building a harmonious society, reforming the political system and safeguarding the authority of the central leadership. [27]

Scholars at home and abroad criticized Huntington's political institutionalization thought mainly on the inherent adaptability and operability of its four indicators. After all, Huntington's stable prescription for developing countries is based on political institutionalization. If political institutionalization is not operable, the architectural foundation of his political development theory will be unstable.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) The Changes of Huntington's Political Development Thought

From 65438 to 0965, Huntington's theory of political development experienced a series of changes from the publication of the article "Political Development and Political Decline". Many researchers have noticed the development of Huntington's political development theory, from paying attention to political development in the early days to political democracy, and then emphasizing the important role of culture in political development.

Qiu Guocheng analyzed the great change of Huntington's political development view from the deficiency of Huntington's early political development view: that is, the democratic political development view replaced the autocratic political development view. The core elements of Huntington's early political development view are permeated with the provisions of stable goals. However, in order to maintain political stability, it is necessary to restrict political participation, but restricting political participation undermines the motivation of political participation. It is precisely because of the above shortcomings of authoritarian political development view that Huntington revised the political development view. This revision process begins with the definition of political development. In 1970s, he abandoned the definition of institutionalization, and in 1980s, he paid more and more attention to cultural analysis. By the early 1990s, the goal of democracy had replaced the goal of stability. [28]

Li Shuyan inspected the development and changes of Huntington's political development theory. She believes that Huntington's book "Changing Political Order in Society" sets three political development goals for developing countries: extensive political participation of citizens, political institutionalization and political participation. The political development model and choice of developing countries are established in difficult choices. The choice of development mode should be decided according to the needs and attitudes of political elites. Huntington put forward an important point in the article "The Goal of Development": developing countries should formulate and choose social and political development models according to their own nationalities and cultures. [29]

It can be seen that Huntington led the development direction of political development theory. With the change of political development in the Third World, Huntington also revised his theory of political development in time. The academic summary of Huntington's political development and changes has some truth, but there is no in-depth analysis of Huntington's political development theory.

Sixth, conclusion: the deficiency of the research and the prospect of the future research.

Scholars at home and abroad have made great progress in the study of Huntington's political development theory, which is manifested in the generalization of Huntington's political development theory system; In-depth study of his thoughts on political stability and political institutionalization; This paper analyzes the changes of Huntington's political development theory. However, there are many shortcomings in the research of Huntington's political development theory: First, it does not pay attention to the coherence of Huntington's political development theory, but only examines the changes of Huntington's political development thought, without analyzing the unchanging theme of Huntington's political development thought; Second, when studying Huntington's thought, domestic scholars tend to be simplistic and cite more, but less research on the connotation of Huntington's political development thought. Thirdly, the source of Huntington's political development thought was not investigated from the perspective of ideological history, the context of Huntington's political development thought was not combed, and the background of Huntington's political development thought portrait was not analyzed.

Huntington is a living fossil of the development of American political theory in the 20th century, and also a representative figure of political development theory. Our research on Huntington's political development theory should broaden our horizons and study Huntington's political development theory from the perspective of ideological history and comparative study. The future research on Huntington's political development theory can be carried out in the following three aspects:

First of all, we should investigate the origin of Huntington's political development theory. We believe that Huntington's theory of political development mainly comes from three scholars: First, the Christian theologian niebuhr. When Kaplan interviewed Huntington, Huntington mentioned that he was reinhold niebuhr's child. Huntington's concern for order and stability is mainly based on niebuhr's theory of human nature. The second is Machiavelli. Huntington once mentioned in The Third Wave that he is a modern Machiavelli. Machiavelli's analysis of modern state construction is the main source of Huntington's political development theory. The third is Louis Harz. As a famous American historian of liberalism, Harz's research on liberalism and American founding theory deeply influenced Huntington. As a conservative, Huntington mentioned Harz and his research in many works. Of course, Federalists, Tocqueville and then political development theorists such as almond and deutsch are also important sources of Huntington's political development thought.

Second, explore the unchanging theme in Huntington's political development theory. Huntington's political development theory has gone through the process from emphasizing stability and authority in the early stage to emphasizing democracy and participation in the later stage. I think that although Huntington's political development theory has changed, Huntington's political thought is still coherent, which is Huntington's concern for order as a conservative. As early as in Soldier and Country, Huntington showed his preference for order through the study of American military-civilian relations. This is more obvious in the political order of changing society. Later Hard to Choose and The Third Wave explored the political development path of developing countries from the perspective of political participation and democratization, but Huntington's ultimate concern is still order. He tried to find a balance between order and democracy in the political development of developing countries.

Thirdly, we should compare the theories of Huntington and other political development theorists. The theory of political development gathered most outstanding political scientists at that time and formed three schools: structural function school, social process school and comparative history school. Huntington is a representative of the school of comparative history, and his application and analysis of comparative research methods are quite distinctive. Only by comparison can we find out the advantages and disadvantages of various schools, which is convenient for us to learn from and use. Huntington's political development thought should be compared with other scholars of the school of comparative history, such as Blake and barrington Moore.

China is in the critical period of building a harmonious socialist society and the stage of political development in Socialism with Chinese characteristics, which puts forward new requirements for us to learn from and absorb western political development theories. Therefore, it is an important task to deeply study Huntington's political development theory, critically learn from his experience and construct China's political development theory in the 26th century.

PS: Huntington ~ a famous political scientist. See if the above information is helpful to you.