亨廷顿(Samuel P. Huntington)将政治制度化归纳为政治体制的一种规定特征(given feature)获得了“适应性,复杂性,自主性和一致性”特性(traits)的过程。而这种特征可以是一个过程,一种制度或者一条准则。当制度化已经渗透了整个政治体系的时候,亨廷顿认为,它就会产生一个“有效率的,有权威的及具有合法性的”政府。2
此外,对有关这些周期的文献所做的粗略分析表明,研究中国政治的学者们一直都太容易把每个阶段诠释为是线性变化 (linear change)。例如,1978年的时候,在被我称为巩固阶段三的初期,就出现了一篇名为“中国的现代化以及继承政治”(Modernization and Succession Politics in China)的文章,文中对未来的不确定提出了一些警告,并进行了很多现在正在(十六大期间)做的讨论。7 1989年后的文献与此正好相反,往往着重强调接下来的政权失败。
与此同时,还有另一种后果可能把中国从这些政治循环中解救出来:那就是一个民主突破(democratic breakthrough)。制度失败提供了这样的机会,这种机会往往是由于随之而来的治理危机而产生的,这对改革派精英来讲,就意味着以承诺政治开放而策划出一个政权的解脱(extrication of the regime,译者注:政权解脱表示转型发生时既有政体的规则被废止,但是威权统治者仍有机会参与协商下台的谈判条件)局面出来,这是走向民主的第一步。但这么一来具有讽刺意味的是,中国最好的民主的希望可能处在非常矛盾的处境,这就使得当前的制度化变得是如此棘手的。
注释:
1. The expression "the logic of concentrated power" refers to Robert Dahl's invocation of the "logic of equality"—the drive toward widespread participation and responsible political power that Dahl sees as inexorably resulting from a starting assumption of political equality among members of a society. See Dahl's On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), 10.
2. Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), 12, 2.
3. Zong Hairen, Disidai (The Fourth Generation) (New York: Mirror Books, 2002). It is the basis of an English-language book I coauthored with Andrew Nathan, China's New Rulers: The Secret Files (New York: New York Review of Books, 2002). We address the authenticity of Disidai at length in the introduction to our book.
4. These shortcomings are explicitly acknowledged in official party documents. See Andrew Nathan and Bruce Gilley, China's New Rulers—for Hu Jintao, 68; for Wu Bangguo, 102; for Luo Gan, 110; and for Li Changchun, 114.
5. I provide a sustained treatment of the likely course of democratic breakthrough in China's Democratic Future (forthcoming).
6. Paul Brooker, Non-Democratic Regimes: Theory, Government and Politics (Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 2000), 115.
7. Kenneth Lieberthal in Journal of International Affairs 32 (Fall 1978): 239-54. The article noted the "startling results" of post-Mao consolidation resulting from the "strong . . . cohesion" of the leadership and its drive to "reinvest the party with its previous authority and competence." It did, however, warn that it was "too early to say" whether the process was irreversible.
8. R. William Liddle, "Indonesia: Suharto's Tightening Grip," Journal of Democracy 7 (October 1996): 70. Cited in Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 262.
(原文标题:The Limits of Authoritarian Resilience)
作者为普林斯顿大学政治学博士,波特兰大学政治科学系助理教授,著有 China's Democratic Future,Tiger on the Brink: Jiang Zemin and China's New Elite,The Right to Rule: How States Win and Lose Legitimacy,Political Change In China: Comparisons With Taiwan
来源:民主杂志(Journal of Democracy)2003年1月刊(主题为中国的权力交接)
校对:@jiangge09,@Freeman7777)
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