《旧制度与大革命·序言·致读者》第4节
In countries in which the Administrative Government is already powerful, there are few opinions, desires, or sorrows--there are few interests or passions--which are not sooner or later stripped bare before it. In the archives of such a Government, not only an exact notion of its procedure may be acquired, but the whole country is exhibited. Any stranger who should have access to all the confidential correspondence of the Home Department and the Prefectures of France would soon know more about the French than they know themselves. In the eighteenth century the administration of the country, as will be seen from this book, was highly centralised, very powerful, prodigiously active. It was incessantly aiding, preventing, permitting. It had much to promise--much to give. Its influence was already felt in a thousand ways, not only on the general conduct of affairs, but on the condition of families and the private life of every individual. Moreover, as this administration was without publicity, men were not afraid to lay bare before its eyes even their most secret infirmities. I have spent a great deal of time in studying what remains of its proceedings, both at Paris and in several provinces. There, as I expected, I have found the whole structure of the old monarchy still in existence, with its opinions, its passions, its prejudices, and its usages. There every man spoke his mind and disclosed his innermost thoughts. I have thus succeeded in acquiring information on the former state of society, which those who lived in it did not possess, for I had before me that which had never been exposed to them.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这里交待了他研究旧制度的一个核心方法论的秘密。他的推理起点是一个经验性的观察：在一个行政机器已经高度发达的国家，社会上几乎没有哪一种意见、欲望、苦痛、利益或激情能够最终躲过行政当局的视线。他所说的 Administrative Government，指的是那种以行政官僚体系为中枢、自上而下穿透社会肌体的治理模式，不是一般意义上的“有政府”，而是行…