所以,民主制度投票规则本身的缺陷经由司法系统得以克服,是民主制度灿然生辉的关键。
四、结论
一致同意规则(请记住,多数者规则是其变种)很难贯穿于整个民主理论,民主的精英化路径在科斯的交易费用的牵引下,无异于深闯民主迷宫的探险者,它是那么可爱而犀利。在政治制度的架构下,司法体系与立法机关的相互制衡的背后是精英与民众的博弈。布坎南执于一端的的思考路径,是难以自洽的。
【作者简介】
肖继耘,复旦大学法学院硕士。
【注释】 Reisman, D., 1990, The Political Economy of James Buchanan, The Macmillan Press Ltd.
盛洪:《经济学透视下的民主——谈谈有关公共选择的经济理论》,载《现代经济学前沿专题》(第二辑),商务印书馆1993年版。
不过,一致同意规则与多数者规则并无质的区别,只是同意人比例不同罢了。职是之故,在下文中,多数者规则被称为一致同意规则的变种。
Ronald H. Coase, 1991, The Institutional Structure of Production, Prize Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel. 原文为:It is obviously desirable that these rights should be assigned to those who can use them most productively and with incentives that lead them to do so and that, to discover and maintain such a distribution of rights, the costs of their transference should be low, through clarity in the law and by making the legal requirements for such transfers less onerous. Since this can come about only if there is an appropriate system of property rights, and they are enforced, it is easy to understand why so many academic lawyers (at least in the United States) have found so attractive the task of uncovering the character of such a property rights system and why the subject of "law and economics" has flourished in American law schools.
詹姆斯·M·布坎南、戈登·塔洛克:《同意的计算——立宪民主的逻辑基础》,陈光金译,中国社会科学出版社2000年版。
与一致同意规则相对应,我把这个过程概括为法官裁决规则。
法院间的竞争曾存在于18世纪的英国。
低效率之表现主要在于,立法机关僵局、立法机关之间的冲突与立法机关与行政机关的冲突。这种低效率会让立法机关失去公信力,甚至导致整个政治体制的失灵与崩溃。所以说,法官裁决规则非常重要,是对一致同意规则的又一次突破。
需要说明的是,“集体的盲目”惯性巨大,需要少至几十年、多至几百甚至上千年才得得以纠正。