拉美是怎样掉进“陷阱”的?——从拉美与美国发展历程的比较看不平等的长期影响

How Latin America Dropped into the“Trap”?:The Long-term Impact of Inequality from the Comparison of the Development of Latin America and the United States

考察拉美与美国发展差异的历史根源,有助于理解“中等收入陷阱”的形成机理。拉美与美国发展差异的原因可以追溯到殖民地时期的土地所有制。拉美严重不平等的大地产制难以为工业品提供足够的市场,不利于吸引欧洲移民及培育民主精神,难以加强各地的经济贸易联系。美国北部较平等的小土地所有制有利于吸引欧洲移民并有助于民主精神的培育,为工业发展提供了广阔的市场,加强了各地的经济贸易联系,培育了制衡南方种植园主的新阶级力量——资产阶级民主派和大资产阶级。上述影响差异在独立战争之后进一步体现为两者在发展路径上的差异:在拉美是分裂、战争、考迪罗、土地日益集中与自由贸易政策,在美国则是联邦制、发展、三权分立和《权利法案》、西进运动与贸易保护政策。从拉美与美国发展历程的比较可以发现,拉美之所以未能成功跨越“陷阱”,深层次的原因是一直持续至今的严重不平等的土地所有制。从长期来看,不平等可能会导致国民财富外流、国内消费能力萎缩、贫富差距扩大与地方分离倾向加重等严重后果。

Investigating the historical roots of the development differences between Latin America and the United States is helpful to understand the formation mechanism of the“middle-income trap”.The reasons for the development differences between Latin America and the United States can be traced back to the land ownership in the colonial era.The large land ownership with serious inequality in Latin America can hardly provide sufficient markets for industrial products,which is not conducive to attracting European immigrants and cultivating the spirit of democracy,and it is difficult to strengthen economic and trade ties across the region.The relatively equal small land ownership in the north of the United States is conducive to attracting European immigrants and fostering the spirit of democracy,providing a broad market for industrial development,strengthening economic and trade ties across regions,and cultivating new class forces,bourgeois Democrats and the big bourgeoisie,that check and balance Southern planters.The dissimilar impacts on the two districts caused distinct developing paths after the Wars of Independence.In Latin America,they are separation,war between countries,caudillismo,land concentration and free trade policy.On the contrary,in the United States,the consequences are federal system,development,separation of powers and the Bill of Rights,Westward Movement and protective trade policy.From the comparison of the development process between Latin America and the United States,it can be found that the deep-seated reason why Latin America failed to cross the“trap”is the serious unequal land ownership that has continued to this day.In the long run,inequality may lead to serious consequences such as the outflow of national wealth,the shrinking of domestic consumption capacity,the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the aggravation of local separation.