美国国家特性的三重面相及当代困境

The Triple Faces of American National Identity and Its Contemporary Dilemma

21世纪以来,美国政治生态发生急剧变化,表征之一是基督教福音民族主义的崛起及其产生的巨大内外政治效应。美国基督教福音民族主义的崛起及产生惊人的内外政治效应,固然存在着内外多种向度的成因,但是从根本上说,与美国民族国家构建过程中存在的一系列问题,如构建目标的模糊性、价值理念的冲突性等因素密切相关,其根源在于美国国家特性的不稳定性或多面性。建国以来,美国在国家特性问题上,一直摇摆不定,其现代民族国家呈现出“自由帝国”“自由主义公民国家”和“盎格鲁-撒克逊新教国家”三重面相。这三种既相互矛盾和冲突、又相互协调并存的国家特性定位,一方面成就了独特的美利坚合众国,另一方面也使其不时面临陷入冲突和困境。值得注意的是,21世纪基督教福音民族主义的崛起及美国政治的极化,可能使以往的既冲突又协调并存的国家特性方案难以为继——特别是随着白人主体族群人口的持续下降,这种既冲突又协调并存的平衡状态将进一步被打破,美国可能因此陷入长期的内部纷争状态。

Since the start of the 21st century, the political ecology of the United States has undergone drastic changes, one of which is the rise of Christian evangelical nationalism and its astonishing internal and external political effects. This change certainly has various internal and external causes, but fundamentally, it is closely related to a series of problems in the construction of the American nation-state. They include the ambiguity of construction goals and a conflict of values, the root of which lies in the instability or multi-faceted nature of American national identity. Since its founding, the United States has vacillated on the issue of national identity, and its modern nation-state presents triple faces of “ liberal empire,” “ liberal citizen state,” and “Anglo-Saxon Protestant state.” These three contradictory and conflicting, yet co-existing national identity orientations have, on the one hand, created the unique United States but on the other hand created conflicts and dilemmas from time to time. It is worth noting that the rise of Christian evangelical nationalism in the 21st century and the polarization of United States politics may make the conflicting and co-existing national identity solutions of the past unsustainable. Especially with the continued decline of the white majority population, this balance of conflicting national identity orientations will be further broken, and the United States may fall into a long-term state of internal strife.