民族政党与政治分权关系研究——以苏格兰民族党为例

Relationship between Ethnic Parties and Political Decentralization:A Case Study of Scottish National Party

政治分权是多民族国家处理民族分离问题时常用的方法,但当分离地区存在实力较为强大的民族政党时,这种分权遏制分离的效果将大为减弱,甚至起到反作用,因为分离地区的民族政党往往会利用政治分权增加实力,同时又不放弃独立诉求与中央政府讨价还价,最终达到民族分离的目的。以苏格兰民族党为例,英国1997年政治分权前,它长时期处于政治边缘地位;分权后,民族党迅速崛起,逐步主导苏格兰政治,继而掀起了声势浩大的苏格兰独立运动,这与中央政府试图以政治分权消除民族分离巩固联合王国的初衷背道而驰。由于苏格兰民族党的存在及其实力的壮大,英国政治分权的负面效应并没有随着苏格兰独立公投的失败而消失,反而持续发酵。

Political decentralization is a frequently -used method when multi -ethnic countries deal with eth- nic separation. While there is a relatively powerful ethnic party in the breakaway regions, the function that the political decentralization restraints the separation will be greatly weakened, and even be counterproductive. As the ethnic party in the breakaway regions tends to use political decentralization to improve its strength, it doesn＇t give up demands of independent. Instead, they bargain with the central government and achieve the goal of national separation ultimately. For example, the development of Scottish National Party due to the political decentralization results in the failure of the strategy that the UK government used the political decentralization to restraint the Scottish separation.