当今美国政党内部分化和影响:一个基本观察

Intraparty Factions and Its Impacts on American Politics:A Preliminary Observation

政党内部分化成为当今美国政治中的一个严峻现实。无论在民主党或共和党,强烈的意识形态分歧和价值观上的差异,给党内带来深深的派系裂痕,也给国会立法进程和政策议题带来重要影响和后果。作为一种“少数者”政治,党内意识形态更趋极端的派系——像共和党极右翼“自由党团”和民主党极左翼“进步党团”——往往在行动上更趋活跃。它们利用传统或非传统手段,挑战和拒绝党内权威势力、阻挠或改变重大政策举措,以便寻求新的政治议程、为推进自己的政策倡议营造环境和空间。2015年“伊朗协议”和2021年“两党基建法案”的例子,一定程度上说明了党内派系争斗如何对国会立法进程和政策目标实现造成掣肘。

Party factions and factionalism have become stark reality in American politics today.Whether in Democratic Party or Republican Party,strong ideological differences and differences in values have brought deep factional rifts within the party,and also brought significant influence and consequences to legislative processes and policy issues of Congress.As"minority"political groups,factions within a given party that tend to be ideologically radical—like the far-right Republican"Freedom Caucus"and the far-left Democratic"Progressive Caucus"—are more politically and legislatively active.They employ traditional and non-traditional means to challenge and deny party authorities and leadership,obstruct or shift major policy issues in order to frame alternative political agendas or(re)create an environment favorable to advancing their own policy initiatives.In the cases of the 2015 Iran Deal and the 2021 Infrastructure Act,factional groups within the parties have exerted important impacts on the legislative processes and policy goals of Congress.