竞争性选举:功能、弊端与可替代性选择

Competitive Election:Functions,Drawbacks and Alternatives

在当今世界的政治话语中,竞争性选举一方面常被一些人寄予过高的不切实际的期望,另一方面一些批评者又对其所履行的现代政治功能重视不够。竞争性选举的政治功能主要有:一定程度的政治合法性功能、政治权力和平更替功能、一定程度的民众诉求表达功能和一定程度的权力约束功能。这些功能的实现需要特定的经济、文化和民族国家等条件;没有这些条件,竞争性选举会带来治理低效、政治动荡、社会失序和国家分裂等危险。此外,竞争性选举还有自身固有的局限和弊端,如强大利益集团问题、选民信息不足问题、身份政治问题、规则自身的问题,以及多党轮流执政带来的问题等。不具备条件的后发展中国家不能照搬这种制度,但应该并能够通过制度创新更好地实现竞争性选举所承担的现代政治功能。

In the political discourses of today's world,competitive elections,on the one hand,are held to unrealistically high expectations by some,and on the other hand,some critics do not pay enough attention to its modern political function.The political functions of competitive election mainly include:a certain degree of political legitimacy function,the peaceful replacement function of political power,a certain degree of public appeal expression function and a certain degree of power restraint function.The realization of these functions requires specific economic,cultural and nation-state conditions;Without these conditions,the competitive election will bring the dangers of inefficient governance,political instability,social disorder and national fragmentation.In addition,competitive elections have their own inherent limitations and drawbacks,such as the problem of powerful interest groups,insufficient voter information,identity politics,the problem of the rules themselves,and the problem of multiple parties alternate in government.Post-developing countries that do not have the conditions cannot copy this system,but should and can better realize the modern political function of election through institutional innovation.