把政党找回来——政党与对外政策

Bringing the Party BackIn: Multi-Party, Two-Party and One-Party Systems in the Politics of Foreign Policy

政党在对外政策中的作用常被国际关系研究忽视。政党可以通过执政、议会、选举、公投以及开展政党外交等方式影响本国对外政策。政党制度是决定政党对外政策影响方式和影响力大小的关键变量。作者通过比较八个国家案例,归纳了六种政党制度下政党对外交政策的影响:极端多党制(意大利、以色列)、温和多党制(德国、法国)、相对两党制(英国)、绝对两党制(美国)、一党主导制(日本)和一党领导制(中国)。多党制下参与对外政策的政党较多,并具有特定对外偏好。从极端多党制到温和多党制,极端政党的影响力减弱,政府稳定性和政策延续性增强。两党制下政府任期稳定,传统上两党对外主张趋同。但两党制也存在极化竞争,尤其近年来民粹主义政客崛起,加剧了两党分歧。一党长期执政的国家的对外政策决策更加集中,较少受其他政党的掣肘,更有可能主动统筹外交与内政。重新重视政党和其所在的政党制度,有利于更好地解释主要大国的对外政策。

The role of parties in the politics of foreign policy is often omitted in IR studies. Parties have shaped foreign policies through government, parliament, election, referendum and party diplomacy. To what extent and through what ways parties can influence foreign policies largely depend on their party systems. The article compares eight countries in six party systems including extreme (Italy and Israel) and moderate (Germany and France) multi-party system, relative (U.K.) and absolute (U.S.) two-party system, one-party dominance (Japan) and one-party leadership system (China). We find that (1) under a multi-party system, more parties with specific preference have engaged in foreign policy making. The impact of extreme party decreases while the government stability and policy continuity increase from extreme to moderate multi-party systems;(2) under a two-party system, the government is stable and traditionally two parties converge in policies. But the polarization in the two-party system has stimulated the rise of populist politicians who are widening the gap of the two parties;(3) under a one-party system, the foreign policy making is more centralized and less influenced by other parties. The longstanding ruling party is more likely to plan foreign policy and domestic issues as a whole. Bringing the party and party system back in foreign policy analysis can help us to better explain the foreign policies of major powers.