Power and Politics in Today’s World - YouTube - Lecture 22: Political Sources of Populism - Misdiagnosing Democracy’s Ills
发布时间:2019-12-06 22:30:28
原节目
以下是将上述内容翻译成中文:
这节讲座分析了民粹主义的政治根源,将重点从选民行为转移到政治家的激励和动机上。它认为,民主政治体系本身助长了民粹主义政治的复兴,特别是自2016年以来。讲座没有仅仅关注全球化、技术、收入不平等、人口老龄化和社团主义共识的崩溃等经济、人口和社会因素,而是强调政治体系的结构如何影响民粹主义的出现。
讲座对比了两党制和多党制,以及强大的政党和弱小的政党。像英国(历史上)和美国这样的两党制,往往产生于单一选区多数决选举制度(即得票最多的候选人获胜)。多党制在西欧和东欧以及拉丁美洲很常见,通常与比例代表制相关联,在这种制度下,政党获得的席位与其得票份额成比例。讲座强调了关于多党制是否更具代表性的辩论,演讲者讨论的是选举结果与政府组建之间的关系。
讲座探讨了对两党制的批评,即两党制会导致“丁丁与当当”(Tweedledee Tweedledum)式的政治,即政党趋同于中间选民,提供相似的政策。虽然某些政策领域可能表现出这种趋同,但另一些领域则显示出显著的党派分歧,比如对经济衰退或劳工保护的回应。演讲者认为,两党制促使政治家承担他们达成的交易的成本,这与多党制不同,在多党制中,成本可以转嫁给消费者或其他群体。捆绑政策和选民对许多问题的折扣,这与多党制是一种不同的动态。
讲座指出,两党制和多党制之间的主要区别源于两党竞争的“赢者通吃”或“输者皆输”的性质。它使用仲裁作为一个隐喻:在“最后最佳报价”仲裁(像两党竞争)中,参与者采取更合理的立场,而传统仲裁鼓励战略行为。此外,两党制能够形成明确的反对派,能够告诉选民另一种选择。
讲座接着讨论了强大的政党和弱小的政党之间的区别。一个强大的政党,以内部团结和集权控制为标志,后座议员将权力委托给前座议员。一个弱小的政党,以个性化行为和分散的权力为标志,看起来每个人都在为自己谋取利益。近年来,民主世界的趋势是削弱政党,讲座给出了几个例子,比如由全体选民选举领导人,越来越多地使用公民投票和全民公投,议会固定任期法案,加强总统权力,越来越依赖初选和党团会议。然而,初选和党团会议往往会产生更多边缘代表、僵局和疏离感。演讲者声称“也许最好的解决方案是中间道路”,并以德国的混合制度为例。
最后,讲座讨论了这些政治结构对经济和社会的影响。人们预计两党制的劳工保护相对较弱,再分配也较低。多党制可能会看到有组织的劳工保护着一个萎缩的“劳动贵族”。具有反移民和保护主义议程的民粹主义政党更有可能出现在弱党制的系统中。裙带关系,或奖励部门利益,在多党制和弱党制中更为猖獗,特别是在存在大量批发和零售腐败的情况下。
This lecture analyzes the political sources of populism, shifting focus from voter behavior to the incentives and motivations of politicians. It argues that democratic political systems themselves have fostered the resurgence of populist politics, particularly since 2016. Instead of focusing solely on economic, demographic, and social factors like globalization, technology, income inequality, aging populations, and the collapse of the corporatist consensus, it emphasizes how the structure of political systems influences the emergence of populism.
The lecture contrasts two-party and multi-party systems, as well as strong and weak political parties. Two-party systems, like the UK (historically) and the US, tend to arise from single-member plurality electoral systems (where the candidate with the most votes wins). Multi-party systems, common in Western and Eastern Europe, and Latin America, are often associated with proportional representation, where parties gain seats proportional to their vote share. The lecture highlights a debate whether the multi-party system is more representative, the speaker argues about the election outcome versus government formation.
The lecture addresses the critique that two-party systems lead to "Tweedledee Tweedledum" politics, where parties converge on the median voter, offering similar policies. While some policy areas may exhibit this convergence, others show significant partisan divergence, like responses to recessions or labor protections. The presenter contends that two-party systems create incentives for politicians to internalize the costs of deals they make, unlike multi-party systems where costs can be externalized onto consumers or other groups. Bundling policies and voters discounts of many issue, it's a different dynamic from multi-party system.
It states there are key differences between two-party and multi-party systems stem from the "winner-take-all" or "lose-all" nature of two-party competition. It uses arbitration as a metaphor: in "last best offer" arbitration (like two-party competition), participants take more reasonable positions, whereas traditional arbitration encourages strategic behavior. Moreover, two-party systems enable a clear opposition, which is capable to tell voters the alternative.
The lecture moves on to the distinction between strong and weak political parties. A strong party, marked by internal unity and centralized control, has backbenchers delegate authority to frontbenchers. A weak party, marked by individualized behavior and diffused power, it looks like everybody is in it for himself or herself. The recent trend across the democratic world has been to weaken parties, and gives several examples like leaders elected at large, increasing use of ballot initiatives and referenda, fixed parliament's act, strengthening presidents, growing reliance on primaries and caucuses. However, primaries and caucuses tend to produce more fringe representatives, gridlock, and alienation. The presenter claims "maybe the best solution is the middle", give an example is Germany's mixed system.
Lastly, the lecture discusses the implications of these political structures for the economy and society. Two-party systems are expected to have comparatively weak labor protections and lower redistribution. Multi-party systems may see organized labor protecting a shrinking "labor aristocracy." Populist parties with anti-immigrant and protectionist agendas are more likely to emerge in weak party systems. Clientalism, or rewarding sectional interests, is more rampant in multi-party and weak party systems, and especially when there is lots of wholesale and lots of retail corruption.