身份政治与当代西方民主的危机

Identity Politics and the Crisis of Contemporary Western Democracy

近年来,西方世界流行对民主制度的悲观论调。欧美国家民粹主义浪潮兴起,政治倾向出现明显右转,西方主流知识界将民粹主义视为民主制度产生危机的原因。但这种理论解释忽略了民主制度产生危机的内生变量,身份政治是引发西方民主制度发生危机的重要原因。身份政治具有身份重叠、身份固化、身份冲突和身份隔离的特征,过度的身份政治危及民主制度的核心要素。民主社会之民被多元身份所分裂,政治代表被身份代表所解构。但是,身份政治得以盛行也和民主制度本身的特性有关。身份政治之所以引发民主危机,实质上是普遍主义与特殊主义面向的内在冲突所致。扭转身份政治,回归公民政治,应该是应对西方民主危机的一种方式。就此而言,保护主权者人民,捍卫主权国家,并非是威胁民主的民粹主义,而恰是对身份政治破坏性的一种遏制,是对自由主义和民主制度的一种调适。

Some pessimistic views spread around the western world those days.The rise of populism and obviously political right-turning make mainstream intelligentsia regards populism as the cause of the crisis of contemporary democracy.This approach of explanation,however,neglects the endogenous variable of the crisis.Identity politics,which is characterized of identity overlapping,identity solidification,identity conflict and identity segregation,is actually the direct factor that triggered the crisis.Excessive identity politics has threatened the kernel of democratic institutions:the people of a democratic society being divided by multicultural identities,political representatives being deconstructed by identity representatives.The reason why identity politics gets prevalent is related to liberal democracy itself.The essence of the crisis is the inner conflict between universalism and particularism that consists of the two-fold aspects of liberal democracy.Reversing identity politics and returning to civic politics might be a proper way that deals with the crisis.Protecting the sovereign people and defending sovereign state,therefore,cannot be defined as a threat to democracy,but a kind of containment to the destructive outcomes of identity politics and accommodation between liberalism and democracy.