法制和法治 的区别是个西方的概念， 传统中华文明里好像没有提及，深究下去估计也超出了我们的知识范围。上网搜了一下， 再对照自己模糊的印象觉得
法治是rule of law （维基百科）， 但似乎中国传统定义的法治更类似于法制。
法制是rule by law
翻译成中文的理解上有混乱， 王军涛似乎说过法制是rule of law.
我指的是民主是rule of law 的前提， 而rule of law 则可以保障民主的延续。
民主作为社会生活的组织形式绝非完美， 这点毋庸置疑， 但对比奴隶，封建等独裁体系来说， 民主可以已相对较小的成本维持社会的稳定， 同时创建较为大众接受的财富分配制度，所以更加适合当今的社会。
Rule of Law
The Rule of Law is an intrinsically abstract idea, which finds itself grounded in philosophical and moral conceptions. One of its most basic tenants is that all people, whether they be at the lowest level of citizenship or the highest, being the sovereign or government ruler, are all equal under the law itself. This means that no one is above the law, and any law that is broken should be equally punished across the board, regardless of status in society or local community.
It is also associated with the concept of natural law, which basically claims that because we all belong to the larger human community, everyone must be treated under the same laws and possess the same rights.
Rule by Law
Rule by Law is a concept that sees the governing authority as somehow being above the law, and has the power to create and execute law where they find it to be convenient, despite the effect it has on larger freedoms that people enjoy. To expand on this idea, rule by law is a method that governments and people in power use to shape the behavior of people, and in terms of governing a country, mass groups of people. This usually has the end goal of psychologically or forcefully persuading people to agree with policy decisions they otherwise would not agree with.