代议民主与福利超载:从福利国家危机、拉美化到欧债危机

Oversupply of Welfares in Representative Democracy:Taking Crisis in Welfare States,Latin Americanization and the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe as Cases

代议民主从其得到广泛践行之日起,就一直存在诸如可能导致福利超载等先天不足。特别是二战结束以来,国际形势的整体稳定使公共政策议题逐步聚焦于民生问题,全球化的加速推进又使得各国的福利政策面临着沉重的国际比照压力。于是,迫于选票压力,部分国家的政府不顾福利刚性和政府财力的限制,一味迎合公众的偏好,致使社会福利支出迅速增加,以致脱离了经济发展的实际水平,代议民主体制下的福利超载现象日益加剧,最终诱发了多次冲突与危机:福利国家危机可以被视为其首次爆发;"拉美化"现象则是福利超载与民粹主义双重夹击下代议民主缺陷的集中爆发;欧债危机在一定程度上也可以被视为这一矛盾的再次爆发。

It is believed that representative democracy has some weaknesses, such as excess welfare. Since the end of World War II, livelihood issues have become an important topic of public policy in a stable international situation. At the same time, welfare policy has also come under intense international comparison pressure as a result of accelerated globalization. Consequently, some countries＇ government welfare spending started to mushroom under the pressure of votes regardless of welfare rigidity and limited government financial resources. As a result, their government welfare spending went beyond the actual level of their economic development. In this situation, the structural conflict between representative democracy and the welfare system intensified day by day and triggered crises repeatedly, such as the crisis of welfare states, Latin Americanization and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.