The 1982 State Constitution and Politics in China
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9256.1984.tb00088.x |
| Date | 01 April 1984 |
| Author | M.D. Fletcher |
| Published date | 01 April 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Negative and Positive Liberty Revisited
27
the notions of deliberation and determination.
'The 'positive' sense of the word 'liberty' derives from the
wish on
the
part of the individual
to
be his own master. I
wish my life and ddcisions to depend
on
myself,
not
on
external
forces of whatever
kind.
I'wish to be
the
instrument
of
my
own, not of other men's, acts of will.
I
wish to be a subject,
not an object; to be moved by reasons, by conscious
purposes,
which are my own,
not
by causes which affect
me,
as it were
'
from outside.' (Berlin, 1969, p.131).
The
conclusion which follows from the preceding analysis is that if the use
of
the
concept of negative liberty is
to
be limited to inabilities which are
the
result of interferences by human beings rather than to inabilities which are the
result of incapacities, questions of interference. and questions of determination
cannot
be
separated.
This
is because obstacles can only be classed as interfer-
ences on the basis
of
whether they can be intentionallyaltered by human action and
such a question,
in
turn,
depends on human beings possessing positive freedom,
that is, possessing
the
capacity for deliberation and determination whereby they
can be described as intentional actors. If, however, questions of interference
cannot be answered in isolation from questions
of
determination the basis
for
Berlin's
logical distinction between the negative and the positive senses of freedom collap-
ses and therewith the possibility of priority being afforded to negative over posi-
tive liberty.
Berlin could only avoid
the
conclusion whereby
the
use
of
the
concept of nega-
tive liberty logically entails
the
positive Freedom of persons if he were prepared
to abandon any limitations
on
the
use
of the concept of negative liberty and aban-
don
the
distin'ction between incapacity and interference (since
the
distinction
requires
the
possession
of
positive freedom by
persons).
-Such an abandonment would,
however, rob the negative sense of liberty of any importance since it would mean
that any form of inability
to
achieve objectives would constitute a restriction
on
freedom and thereby justify persons claiming, for instance,
to
lack the freedom
to
swim
like whales or fly like
birds.
Since Berlin would,no
doubt,
wish
to
resist
such
a
trivialisation
of
the negative sense of liberty, the
twin
objectives of
separating negative from positive liberty and affording priority
to
the former over
the latter should be abandoned.
References
Berlin, I. (1969), Four Essays
on
Liberty (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Gray, J.N. (1980), 'On Negative and Positive Liberty', Political Studies,
Vo1.28,
NO.
4,
pp.507-26.
-0-000-0-
THE
1982
STATE CONSTITUTION AND POLITICS
IN
CHINA
M.D.
Fletcher
Since 1949 changing political orientations and power balances
in
the
People's
Republic of China
(PRC)
have
been
reflected in four different state Constitutions,
onein 1954 and then three in rapid succession in 1975,
1978
and 1982.l
argued elsewhere that Chinese
Constitutions
are documents appropriate for
study
as
forms
of
political expression and as indicators of changes in policy directions
(Fletcher 1981). The 1982 state Constitution is perhaps particularly important
in this respect because
the
political orientation
it
reflects involves an enhanced
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