制度内恶性竞争与春秋时期国际合作规范退化

Internal Cut-Throat Competition and Norm Regression in International Institutions during the Spring and Autumn Period

春秋时期国际体系内大国试图继承西周大一统体系的部分合作规范来建立国际制度,但所建立的国际制度出现了公共物品不足、制度维持成本过高、成员生存状态不断恶化、成员间矛盾不断加剧、合作规范退化等现象。这是因为制度内大国为争夺制度领导权而激烈竞争,又由于制度安排、大国间竞争结构、领导权争夺的零和性质等因素的作用,竞争者选择了违背合作规范的恶性竞争方式,并因此导致了合作制度崩溃与规范退化。国际体系也随之从春秋时期相对有秩序、有规范的状态向战国时期霍布斯状态转化。国际制度的建立有时不仅意味着参与各方总体收益的增加,国际制度还承载着其他重要的社会性利益,比如制度内的领导地位等利益,对于这些利益的竞争可能导致制度的瓦解。这是某些新自由制度主义和自由主义倾向的建构主义观点所容易忽视的内容。春秋时期国际制度内恶性竞争的现象反映出,在一定条件下,即使大国具有较高身份认同、内化了相同的合作规范、拥有较高的制度内地位,仍然可能为了制度领导权而竞争。

During the Spring and Autumn Period,attempts were made by great pow-ers to establish international institutions by carrying forward some of the cooperation norms inherited from the Western Zhou Dynasty's grand unity system.However,the ensuing international institutions were troubled by insufficiency of public goods,high costs of maintenance,emergence of conflicts between member states,deterioration of the survival conditions of the member states and regression of cooperation norms.Within the international institutions of the Spring and Autumn Period,great powers were engaged in fierce competition for leadership.Due to factors such as institutional arrangement,competition structure of great powers,the zero-sum nature of leadership competitions,etc.,competitors chose to violate cooperation norms in the manner of cutthroat competition,which led to the collapse of the cooperation institutions and the regression of norms.The international system consequently evolved from relatively orderly,norm-based state of the Spring and Autumn Period to the Hobbesian state of the Warring States Period.The establishment of international institutions does not necessarily entail the increase of overall benefits to participants.Also,institutions carry other important social interests like the leadership in the system.Under certain circumstances,the competition for those interests might be even more destructive to cooperation norms,consequently leading to the collapse of the cooperation institutions.That phenomenon is often overlooked by neo-liberalists and liberal constructivists.The internal competition within international institutions during the Spring and Autumn Period shows that great powers,which have collective identity,high social status and internalized cooperation norms,could also compete fiercely for the leadership of the institutions.