问责政治的逻辑:在问责与避责之间

The Logic of Accountability Politics: Between Accountability and Blame Avoidance

问责政治中一个重要的现象是问责与避责相伴而生。从责任、因果关系和时间层面来看,问责与避责就像一个硬币的两面,两者之间的对立可以从机构性、表象性和政策性策略三个维度理解。这种对立观的形成,源自对问责概念的片面理解和对避责行为的单一认识。要超越两者之间的二元对立而相互促进,就需要重新认识问责概念的沟通意涵、正视避责行为的正面效果、建立问责与避责相连接的机制。从根本上讲,问责与避责关系认识上的分歧,是由特定的文化所形塑的,只有深入到不同责任政治的文化情境中,才能够深刻理解问责政治的内在逻辑。

An important phenomenon in accountability politics is that accountability are accompa-nied by blame avoidance.From the perspective of responsibility,causality and time,accountability and blame avoidance are opposite sides of the same coin.The opposition between accountability and blame avoidance can be understood from the three dimensions of institutional,representational and policy strategies.The opposition stems from a one-sided understanding of the concept of accountability and a single understanding of the act of blame avoidance.To transcend the binary opposition and promote interaction between accountability and blame avoidance,we need to re-recognize the communicative meaning of the concept of accountability,face up to the positive effects of avoidance behavior and establish a mechanism for connecting accountability with blame avoidance.Fundamentally speaking,the differences in understanding accountability and blame avoidance result from specific cultures.Only by going deep into the cultural contexts of different responsible politics can we understand well the inner logic of accountability politics.