【20121102BBC】中国的选举比西方的更具代表性？

diver18

同主题搜索，发现天涯已做节译，节省体力，贴之。

从译者起的这个题目就知道他/她痛不痛苦了。
洋“五毛”异军突起，“精英”腹背受敌，大势去矣！

http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/worldlook/1/610362.shtml

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今天在BBC上看到一篇文章，题目为“中国（政府）比西方（政府）更具合法性？”（ Is China more legitimate than the West?），作者为《当中国统治世界》一书的作者、经济学家Martin Jacques。原文链接：http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20178655。现将文章部分内容翻译出来，供大家参考。声明：本人对文中观点既不表示赞同也不表示反对。



　　This week will witness an extraordinary juxtaposition of events. On Tuesday the next American president will be elected. Two days later, the 18th congress of the Chinese Communist Party will select the new Chinese president and prime minister.
　　本周我们将见证两件重大事件。周二美国进行总统选举。两日后，中共十八大将决定中国国家主席及总理人选。




　　The contrast could hardly be greater.
　　二者之间的反差之大可以说达到了极点。








　　Americans in their tens of millions will turn out to vote. In China the process of selection will take place behind closed doors and involve only a relative handful of people.
　　数以千万计的美国人会参与投票。在中国，推选过程秘密进行，只有相对来说数目很小的一群人参与其中。




　　You are probably thinking, "Ah, America at its best, China at its worst - the absence of democracy. China’s Achilles heel is its governance. This will be China’s downfall."
　　你一定会这样认为，“啊，美国真棒，中国真烂——没有民主。政治是中国的致命缺点，中国终将会栽在这上面。




　　I want to argue quite the contrary.
　　我的看法截然相反。




　　You probably think that the legitimacy and authority of the state, or government, is overwhelmingly a function of democracy, Western-style.
　　你很可能认为政权或政府的合法性与权威性基本上属于只有西方式民主才具有的功能。




　　But democracy is only one factor. Nor does democracy in itself guarantee legitimacy.
　　但是民主只是一个因素。民主本身并不能保证合法性。




　　Think of Italy. It is always voting, but the enduring problem of Italian governance is that its state lacks legitimacy. Half the population don’t really believe in it.
　　以意大利为例。该国一年到头都在搞选举，可是意大利政府的痼疾恰恰就是缺乏合法性。半数人口对政府没有信任。




　　Now let me shock you: the Chinese state enjoys greater legitimacy than any Western state. How come?
　　现在我要告诉你一件你会感到难以置信的事实：中国政府比任何西方政府都更具合法性。怎么可能？




　　In China’s case the source of the state’s legitimacy lies entirely outside the history or experience of Western societies.
　　就中国来讲，政权合法性的来源是和西方社会的历史、经历风马牛不相及的。




　　接下来的一大段讲了很多，不翻了。




　　The fact that the Chinese state enjoys such an exalted position in society lends it enormous authority, a remarkable ubiquity and great competence.
　　中国政府在中国社会享有极高的地位，这使得其具有无与伦比的权威，影响无处不在，执政能力极强。




　　Take the economy. China’s economic rise - an annual growth rate of 10% for more than 30 years - has been masterminded by the Chinese state.
　　就拿经济来说吧。过去30年中国经济以10%的年增长率增长，而这都是在中国政府的主导下取得的。




　　It is the most remarkable economic transformation the world has seen since the modern era began with Britain’s industrial revolution in the late 18th Century.
　　这是自18世纪末期英国工业革命以来世界近代史上最非凡的经济变革。




　　Even though China is still a poor developing country, its state, I would argue, is the most competent in the world.
　　即便中国仍旧是一个贫穷的发展中国家，中国政府——我还是要这样讲——是世界上最称职的政府。




　　Take infrastructure - the importance of which is belatedly now being recognised in the West. Here, China has no peers. Its high speed rail network is the world’s largest and will soon be greater than the rest of the world’s put together.
　　以基础设施为例——西方最近才认识到基础设施的重要性。在这方面，无人能望中国之项背。中国拥有世界最大的高速铁路网，而且很快就会超过世界其他国家的总和。




　　And the state’s ubiquity - a large majority of China’s most competitive companies, to this day, are state-owned. Or consider the one-child policy, which still commands great support amongst the population.
　　无所不在的政府——时至今日，中国最具竞争力的公司大多数都是国有的。还有独生子女政策，依然得到民众的高度支持。




　　The competence of the state is little talked about or really valued in the West, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world.
　　在西方，尤其是盎格鲁-撒格逊地区，人们很少讨论也不怎么重视政府执政能力这一话题。




　　Indeed, since the early 80s, the debate about the state in Britain has largely been conducted in terms either of what bits should be privatised or how it can be made to mimic the market.
　　事实上，从80年代早期以来，在英国，关于政府职能的讨论大多限于“哪个部门应该私有化”或者“如何让政府变得更像市场”等等话题。




　　Now, however, we are in a new ball game. With the Western economies in a profound mess and with China’s startling rise, the competence of the state can no longer be ignored. Our model is in crisis. Theirs has been delivering the goods.
　　可是现在我们面对的是一场新游戏。鉴于西方经济泥足深陷而中国经济一飞冲天，政府的执政能力不可以继续被忽视了。我们的模式危机四伏。而中国人的模式却硕果累累。




　　As China’s dramatic ascent continues - which it surely will - then China’s strengths will become a growing subject of interest in the West. We will realise that our relationship with them can no longer consist of telling them how they should be like us. A little humility is in order.
　　中国正在崛起——也终将会崛起——中国的实力将会在西方引发越来越多的讨论。我们将会认识到我们与中国人的关系绝不应该总是我们敦促他们向我们拜师学艺。我们应该表现的谦逊一点。




　　One of the most dramatic illustrations of this will be the state. We think of it as their greatest weakness but we will come to realise that it is one of their greatest strengths.
　　在这方面最有力的一个例证就是“政府”。我们总认为那是中国人最大的弱点，可是我们将会认识到那恰恰是他们最大的长处。




　　Beyond a point it would be quite impossible for a Western state to be like China’s. It is the product of a different history and a different relationship between state and society. You could never transplant their state into a Western country, and vice versa. But this does not mean that we cannot learn from the Chinese state, just as they have learnt much from us.
　　当然，要想让一个西方政府变成中国式政府是不可能的。中国政府产生于和西方完全不同的历史以及政府和社会之间的关系。你永远也不可能把他们的政府移植到一个西方国家，反之亦然。但是这并不意味着我们不能向中国政府学习，就像他们向我们学习一样。

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diver18

The world is increasingly being shaped by China, and if it has looked west for the last two centuries, in future it will look east.

译者这句没发现。
中文河东河西的英文最好阐释。

蓉城是我家

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