内森·加德尔斯:习近平挑战西方治理模式——从无畏到实干

来源:观察者网

2014-10-10 07:39

内森·加德尔斯

内森·加德尔斯作者

《世界邮报》主编,伯格鲁恩研究院高级顾问

【《习近平谈治国理政》多语种图书8日在当天开展的德国法兰克福国际书展上举行首发式,向国际社会介绍中国的治国理念和执政方略。德国前总理施罗德在首发式上对此书赞赏有加,并称赞习近平主席是一位远见卓识的改革家。该书引起外媒热议,本文原载于美国《赫芬顿邮报》网站,观察者网杨晗轶译。】

德国前总理施罗德在《习近平谈治国理政》首发式上对此书赞赏有加

过去几年里,抨击西方政治衰朽、会诊民主制度机能障碍的书出了不少。

弗朗西斯·福山在其权威新作《政治秩序和政治衰朽》中,冷峻地审视了“对抗性的司法主义”是如何腐化法治;以及美国的特殊利益集团是如何用“否决政治”制造政治僵局、阻碍革新的。

福山这部著作包含的许多主题与《智慧治理:21世纪东西方之间的中庸之道》(中文版由观察者网朱新伟等翻译)不谋而合。在这本曾被《金融时报》评为年度最佳的书中,我和尼古拉斯·伯格鲁恩提出,在美国的“消费者民主”制度下,选民的短视性,再加上特殊利益对“一人一票”选举的俘虏,使美国政治体制丧失了自我纠错的能力。

这里要提到的第三本书是《第四次革命:重塑国家的全球竞争》。该书作者暨《经济学人》杂志编辑约翰·米克斯维特和阿德里安·伍尔德里奇宣称,我们再也不能做这样的假设:一个低效的、僵化的自由主义福利国家,能跑赢正在崛起的亚洲对手——特别是中国。

中国国家主席习近平上任两年来,分秒必争地巩固了权力,如今又以《习近平谈治国理政》这本长达500页的大部头,加入到全球治理模式的竞争中来。而且这本书还有英文版!在书中,这位后毛泽东时代最有权力的中国领导人,详细地向世界解释了中国的运作方式,在习的任期内中国意图走向何方,以及中国独特的治理体系将如何指引中国达成目标。

《习近平谈治国理政》的出版,标志着全球化已进入新篇章。自冷战结束以来,全球化产生了激烈的经济竞争;从现在开始,全球化必将包括治理模式的竞争。

习近平的著作是一部“反回忆录”,或者说是一部倒过来写的回忆录。《习近平谈治国理政》不是领导人淡出政治舞台后,为回顾过去而收录的一系列讲话和公告;而是在习领导下的中国雄心勃勃的改革宣言。

这本书勾勒出习近平所讲的“中华民族伟大复兴”的轮廓,解释了为什么中国最高领导层相信一党体制下的协商式决策过程比一人一票的投票制度更加民主——因为它考虑到了全社会的整体利益。在书中,习近平正面阐述了关于治国理政的一系列问题:向贪污腐败宣战;应对生态环境挑战;建设中美新型大国关系;坚决转向市场化资源配置;保障进城务工的农民工平等权利;以及在大规模城镇化的新背景下消除贫困。此外,他还讨论了中国的法治建设。

事实上,西方读者必须得消化略显生硬的话语,才能全面解读习近平的意思。(习近平在努力用大白话取代党八股,但这仍是一项有待加强的改革)。在繁复的段落中,埋藏着许多根本性的转型,譬如司法权与行政管辖权适当分离,从而建立法院的独立性(第92页)。但如果你真想抓住当前中国巨变的实质;真想了解凝聚共识型(而非多党竞争型)政治体制对实现中国目标的核心重要性,多花点工夫去消化理解也是值得的。

如果奥巴马担任参议员时的传记叫做《无畏的希望》,习近平的著作可以被称为《从无畏到实干》。

是的,这本书亚马逊商城有售(除了英文版,还有法文、俄文、阿拉伯文、西班牙文、葡萄牙文、德文、日文版)。

(点击下一页,查看英文原文)

 

 

 

How to Turn Audacity into Effective Action: China's Xi Jinping Challenges the Western Model of Governance

In the past few years there have been a slew of books decrying the political decay and dysfunction of Western democracy.

In his magisterial new work, "Political Order and Political Decay," Francis Fukuyama takes a hard look at how "adversarial judicialism" has corrupted the rule of law and how the emergence of a special interest "vetocracy" has blocked change and produced gridlock in the United States.

Fukuyama's book traces many of the same themes raised by myself and Nicolas Berggruen in our book, "Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A Middle Way Between West and East," flagged as a "best book of the year" by the Financial Times. We argue that, in America's "consumer democracy," the short-term horizon of the voter combined with the capture of one-person-one vote elections by special interests has paralyzed the capacity of our political system to self-correct.

In a third book, "The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State,"Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge posit that we can no longer assume that an inefficient and gridlocked liberal welfare state can outcompete rising rivals in Asia, particularly China.

Now China's President Xi Jinping, who has wasted not a moment over the past two years consolidating his power, enters the global competition with a 500 page tome titled "The Governance of China." And it is in English! At great length, the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao explains to the world how China works, what it intends to do in the coming years during his tenure at the top and how its unique governing system will get it there.

The publication of Xi's book marks a new chapter of globalization. While globalization since the end of the Cold War has entailed fierce economic competition, from now on it will also entail a competition of models of governance.

Xi's book is an anti-memoir, or a memoir in reverse. Rather than the normal collection of speeches and proclamations only published once a leader is out of office and looking back at his legacy, "The Governance of China" is a manifesto of the ambitious reform path upon which China has embarked under Xi's leadership.

The book outlines what Xi means by "rejuvenating the Chinese nation" and explains the consultative decision making process of a one-party system that China's top leaders believe is more democratic - taking into account the interests of all of society - than one-person-one-vote elections. He lays down the gauntlet on corruption. He addresses the ecological challenge, the geopolitics of the "new great power relationship with the United States," the decisive shift toward the market, equality for migrant workers in the cities and ending poverty in the context of massive new urbanization. And he discusses the evolution toward the rule of law.

The Western reader, it is true, will have to wade through way too much wooden rhetoric to decipher what it all means. (One sorely missing reform is jettisoning Party-speak for plain language). Many of the fundamental transformations - for example separating the judiciary from administrative jurisdictions, thus forging independence of the courts (P. 92) --- are buried in long-winded passages. But the wade is worth the while if you want to grasp the enormity of the changes China is undergoing and how central a consensus forming - as opposed to multi-party competitive - political system is to realizing those goals.

If Barack Obama's pre-presidential biography was called "The Audacity of Hope," Xi's book could be called "How to Translate Audacity into Effective Action."

And yes, the book is available on Amazon (and also in French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Japanese).

责任编辑:陈轩甫
观察者APP,更好阅读体验

李强:大力发展智能网联新能源汽车

“西方媒体,看清你们了!”拜登“走后门”也没躲过

“TikTok只是烟雾弹,美情报机构才无时无刻不在…”

获得军援后以色列不会违反国际法?美国多部门:不可信

最后通牒?以色列放话“要么签,要么打”