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The Construction of Mistake-tolerant Democracy Based on the Practical Right “Right to Trial and Error”



Author(s)

Zhifa ZHOU

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2018.01.005

The law “Trial and Error Ordinance” enacted in 2006 and spreading throughout China especially since 2016 is the best starting point for China’s democratization, because Chinese government officials cannot be confronted with their new challenges directly without the right to trial and error. This study has tried to build a new democratic theory, mistake-tolerant democracy based on the right to trial and error with Chinese characteristics and Western value to guide Chinese democratized way. The right theory of mistake-tolerant democracy is the new right paradigm, “the right to trial and error as an original right and mutual empowerment theory” proposed by the combination of the state of nature and the scientific method of trial and error rather than natural right theory and social contract theory. Mistake-tolerant democracy emphasizes that the people have the equal right to trial and error as an original right, and the officials’ right to trial and error are granted from the people and should empower the corresponding rights to them, which is the meaning of mutual empowerment theory.

liberal democracy, right to trial and error, right to be wrong, right to be in error, Trial and Error Ordinance, state of nature, mistake-tolerant democracy