The formation process of the “democracy-autocracy” dichotomy in the West demonstrates its attempt to transform “democratization” into “Westernization” by making a conceptual shift and fighting for the discourse power on democracy. This discourse has both distinct value appeals and strong political and interest appeals. The implicit appeal for democratic transformation is to use the logic of voluntarism to deceive other countries on the premise of obscuring the economic foundation. Its discourse not only violates the principle of historical materialism, but also presents with the metaphysical paradox of “improper dichotomy” and the dichotomy between the principle of value and that of fact. The Western discourse on democracy obscures the root problems regarding the economic foundation, and judges the legitimacy and illegitimacy by illusorily standing on the moral high ground of superstructure and values, which is bound to face the paradoxical dilemma of logical construction and realistic practice.

Editor: Zhong Yao、Zheng Yifan

From:Teaching and Research.2023.No.6.