“大佬”拉福莱特与“进步主义运动”的悖论

“Boss La Follette and the Paradox of the US “Progressive Movement”

在美国进步主义运动中,罗伯特·M·拉福莱特是一位公认的向"政治机器"和"大佬"们发起斗争的改革者。然而在很多政治对手眼中,以及不少政党政治的研究者笔下,他又成了一名政党"大佬",手中掌握着一个不折不扣的"政治机器"。拉福莱特身上这一看似非常矛盾的特质,其实也体现了美国"进步主义运动"的一个特征,甚至是这场改革运动的一大困境。在历史研究者,尤其是进步主义学派的学者们看来,进步主义是底层民众为改善经济条件、扩大民主参与而与镀金时代的僵化政治体制作的一番斗争,"进步派"们通过一系列立法运动破坏了旧制度。然而在旧制度的废墟上,新制度是否已建立起来,以及新建立的制度能否超越旧体制的藩篱,却是对进步派改革者的一场考验。拉福莱特个人身上的矛盾性,在某种程度上解释了为何一些人认为"进步主义"是激进的,而另一些人则认为它是保守的。

Robert M. La Follett was widely regarded as a reformer during the Progressive Movement challenging ＂Political Machines＂ and Bosses. But in the eyes of his political opponents and those who study party politics, La Follett himself was a party ＂boss＂, who controlled ade facto quintessential ＂political machine＂. The self-contradiction in La Follette reveals the very characteristics of American Progressive Movement, which could even be regarded as a huge dilemma. Historians, especially those under the Progressive tradition, take Progressivism as a struggle of the lower class to improve their economic conditions and enlarge their participation into democracy, against the stubborn political system of the Gilded Age.Progressives abolished the old system with a lot of legislations, but whether the new system had been erected,and whether it really transcended the old one, was yet a trial for the progressive reformers. The selfcontradictory images of La Follette may, at some extent, help explain why some researchers call the movement ＂radical＂ while others consider it ＂conservative＂.