反民主的实验室:联邦制、政治极化与美国民主  

Laboratories A gainst Democracy:Federalism,Political Polarization and the American Democracy

作　　者：倪春纳 Ni Chunna

机构地区：[1]南京大学马克思主义学院,江苏省南京市210023

出　　处：《政治学研究》2023年第6期175-186,M0008,共13页CASS Journal of Political Science

基　　金：国家社会科学基金青年项目“新时代提升中国特色社会主义民主的国际话语权研究”(22CKS031)的研究成果。

摘　　要：长期以来,理想主义的联邦制观点认为,权力下放和政治竞争可以鼓励美国各州成为新政策和新理念的试验场,各州具有“民主实验室”的独特作用。然而,政治极化伴随着各州政治的全国化,各州政党积极追求本党在全国范围内的共同议程。在联邦制框架下,趋于极化的两党都不愿意遵守民主的游戏规则,否认反对派的合法地位,操纵选举进程,不公正划分选区,尤其是共和党控制的州中发生了大规模限制选民投票权利的浪潮。不仅如此,有组织的利益集团利用资金和资源的高度流动性优势,将政治资源转移到与其结盟的政党所控制的州中,实现了其有别于广大选民利益的特殊利益,严重扭曲了政治回应性。此外,各州层面的“统一政府”削弱了分权制衡的制度性约束,而选民回溯性投票的政治性约束也难以真正发挥作用,使表现不佳或破坏民主规范的政治精英得以规避民主问责。这些都表明,联邦制并没有将美国各州变成鼓励政策创新的“民主实验室”。相反,极化政党与联邦制的结合反而使各州沦为“反民主的实验室”,进一步加剧了美国民主的衰退趋势。The idealistic view of federalism has long held that decentralization and political competition can encourage America's stales to become testing grounds for new policies and ideas,with states serving a unique role as"laboratories of democracy".However,since the politieal polarization and the nationalization of state politics,the state parties have actively pursued their own party's common agenda at the national level.Under the framework of federalism,both polarized parties were unwilling to play by the rules of the democratic game,denied the legitimacy of the opposition,manipulated the electoral process.gerrymandered the distriets,especially in Republican-controlled states,saw a massive wave of restrictions on voters'right to vote.Moreover,organized interest groups take advantage of the high mobility of funds and resources to divert political resourees to states controlled by their allied parties,serving special interests distinct from those of the general volers at large,and severely distoring political responsiveness.At the same time,the"unified government"at the state level weakens the institutional constraints of cheks and balances,and the political constraints of voter retrospective voting fail to work,allowing political elites who underperform or undermine demoeratie norms to avoid demoeratic accountability.All this suggests that federalism has not turned states into"laboratories of democracy"which encourage policy innovation.On the contrary,the combination of polarized political parties and federalism has turned the states into"laboratories against democracy"further exacerbating the deline of American democracy.

关 键 词：政治极化 联邦制 美国民主 

分 类 号：D771.2[政治法律—政治学]