西方民主话语霸权的政治解读

The Political Analysis of the Hegemony of the Western Democratic Discourse

凭借风靡全球的第三波民主化浪潮的洗礼,西方发达民主国家在普世性的政治修辞中谋取了强势的话语霸权,显然,这一局面的形成与美国、欧盟以及其他国际组织等所积极推动的民主输出不无关系。通过在输出过程中对"民主"的语言学"美容"和"包装",欧美发达民主国家向后发民主国家进行了潜移默化的话语规训与灌输。西方民主的话语霸权所反映的深层文化机理,是西方基督教文明与民主的亲缘关系对全球民主版图的扩张和影响。然而,以无视现实的浪漫主义态度鼓吹自由主义民主已经取得决定性胜利的论断显然显得过于乐观,事实上西方民主并未像其宣称的那样已经获得了毋庸置疑的话语霸权,近年来,全球民主化进程中所发生的诸多民主衰退案例就是很好的证明。

With the sweeping influence of the third wave, the western developed democracy has obtained a hegemonic discourse in the universal political rhetoric. Such hegemony is attributed to the democracy promotion from the United States, the European Union and other international organizations. Through the process of democratic promotion, ＂ democracy＂ was beautified, polished and successfully transported to newly democratized states. The profound cultural background reflected in the hegemony of western democratic discourse lies in the strong connection between western Christian civilization and democracy and the influence to democracy exerted by the expansion of the Western Christian civilization. However, it seems overly optimistic to declare the triumph of liberal democracy; in fact, the hegemony of western democratic discourse is still in challenge, as is demonstrated by the democratic recession in recent global democratization.