本文以「中國左派有理由支持自由民主嗎？」為題，通過對西方 左派思想資源的一些考察，間接地反思九◦年代中期以降中國自由主 義與新左派論爭中的民主分歧一亦即許紀霖所謂「憲政民主」與 「全面民主」的分歧。在當代中國的語境下，自由民主經常被官方批 評者指責為「資產階級自由化」之一環。不少新左派論者也附和這種 說法，並且進一步宣稱：中國要的不是這種西方式假民主，而是某種 更全面、更直接的中國式民主。然而，自由民主真的只不過是「資產 階級的」自由民主嗎？昔日革命左派論者所謂比自由民主更全面、更 直接的真民主，又究竟有些難題？中國左派真的沒有理由支持自由 民主嗎？本文「繞道」西方左派思想，以其作為主要的思想資源， 為「自由民主」作為一種有著諸多缺陷、但比起官僚專制與威權自由 主義都更進步的政治制度，提供一些起碼的辯護。本文論證指出：在 官僚專制與自由民主之間，追求政治平等與社會平等的左派（無論中 西）實有足夠充分的理由爭取後者。參照西方左派的坎坷發展，中國 左派亦不無相當好、相當強的理由，支持、參與中國從官僚專制過渡 到自由民主、社會民主的長期政治轉型。

Does the Chinese left have reasons to support liberal democracy? From mid-1990s onward, serious disagreements over democracy have taken place in Chinese intellectual circles. While Chinese liberals argue for the desirability of constitutional democracy, Chinese “new leftists” tend to reject the latter for reasons that it is too Western and that it represents just a very limited form of democracy. In contemporary China virtually all those—including democratic liberals, liberal democrats, social democrats, and democratic socialists—who propose some version of liberal constitutional democracy are regarded as “rightists.” Almost by definition, then, the Chinese “leftists” are against Western-style liberal democracy. Through a critical examination of the development of Western leftwing thought, this paper aims to offer some reasons why the egalitarian left—be it Western or Chinese—would have quite good and strong cases for supporting liberal democracy as a limited, yet nevertheless crucial, political advance against Bonapartist or Bismarck-style bureaucratic despotism.