论文标题:自由主义对美国十九世纪现代化的影响
The Influence of Liberalism to the Modernization of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
论文作者 付涛
论文导师 李平,论文学位 硕士,论文专业 外国语言学及应用语言学
论文单位 对外经济贸易大学,点击次数 194,论文页数 64页File Size155k
2003-04-01论文网 http://www.lw23.com/lunwen_5072982/ 自由主义;现代化
Liberalism; modernization
美国在100年左右的时间里，实现了从农业社会向工业化、现代化社会的转变。尽管中外学者从不同的角度对美国的现代化进行了研究，但只有少部分是从思想领域入手的。本文对美国最有影响力的社会思潮之一——自由主义进行了历时性研究，分析了它对美国19世纪现代化的影响。 本文追溯了自由主义在美国内战结束前后的发展——从约翰·洛克的古典自由主义到亚当·斯密的自由竞争或者经济自由主义，到约翰·密尔和托马斯·格林的社会自由主义。这些自由思想反映在四个原则上，也就是尊重个人的尊严和自由，相信民主，追求平等和乐观主义精神。这四个原则是美国人最坚定不变的价值观。本文分析了在这些价值观的影响下，总统、联邦最高法院的大法官这样的决策者做出的决定如何直接或间接地促进了美国现代化的过程。文章还援引一些判例和法案补充说明政府在管理经济的立场上的变化及自由思想对现代化过程的影响。 最后本文的结论是除了经济、技术和资源因素外，自由主义这个思想因素对美国19世纪的现代化起了一个催化作用。
America successfully achieved the transformation from an agricultural society to an industrialized, modernized one within one hundred years or so. Though researchers have probed modernization from different perspectives, only a few did it from the angle of ideological studies. This thesis is a diachronic study of the influence of liberalism, one of the most influential social thoughts, to the modernization of the United States in the nineteenth century. The thesis traces the evolution of liberalism - from John Locke"s classical liberalism to Adam Smith"s laissez faire or economic liberalism to John Stuart Mill and Thomas Hill Green"s social liberalism - before and after the end of American Civil War respectively. These liberal ideas, which can be summarized in four tenets - respecting the dignity and freedom of the individual, believing in the democratic system, advocating equality and optimism, are the deepest values held by Americans. Then the thesis analyses how the important resolutions made by the decision-makers - presidents, chief justices, influenced by these values, enhanced the development of modernization in a direct or indirect way. Cases and acts are cited to reinforce the shift of government"s stance in administering economic affairs and the influence of the liberal ideas to the modernizing process.In the end, the thesis concludes that in addition to economic, technical, and resource factors, ideological factor - liberalism played a role of catalyzer to the modernization of the United States in the nineteenth century.
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