Western democracy has undergone a transformation from traditional Republican democracy to contemporary popular democracy.Early democracy was elite democracy, the democracy of a few people, or the republic between a few people.But since the 1970s, with the realization of one person and one vote system, the legitimacy of politics is completely based on the votes.
What is the essence of the Sino -US trade war?Although it is a real trade war on the surface, it is actually competition and conflict between the two political and economic models of China and the West.Both political and economic models are civilized and are the products of the evolution of civilization in China and the West.It is precisely because of civilization that these two models are sustainable. No matter what competition and conflict between the two, no one can change anyone, and each will develop according to their own logic.
On the surface, the Sino -US trade war is between the two countries, but the root cause comes from the internal system of the United States. It is a problem caused by the digestion and cope of the system in the United States.
Regardless of the East and the West, the core of the political and economic system is whether economic (commercial) activities are regarded as political affairs and the responsibility of the country.Before modern times, different civilizations had similar political and economic relations, that is, the economy was never an independent field, but one of the areas of many areas of human society, and there were inextricables in the economic fields and other areas.Symbiosis and coexistence.
However, in the West, since modern times, due to the rise and rapid development of capitalism, the economy has gradually independently made itself from the fields of society, isolated itself from society, and finally developed into a new liberal economy form today.The development of political economics in the West is also a process of separation of politics and economy. This process still affects all aspects of Western society.The separation of politics and economy is both the source of Western economic development and the root of social issues.
In ancient Greece, people's views on the economy are not different from China.Family is regarded as the basic unit and foundation of the country, while the economy is the management of the family.This political and economic concept has not changed much from the Roman Empire.After entering modern times, this concept began to change in the West, that is, the economic and politics began to separate the economy and politics.Here are two experience facts that have contributed to this separation of politics and economy.First, the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the rise of businessmen.Second, the reconstruction of political order.
After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, there was no longer a unified government and political forces in the West. The original empire's land was divided into a large number of local government (or the little kingdom).In Europe, it was called the dark era (medieval) in the late period, and European cities rose.Because there is no unified central government, the city's performance is a substantive form of autonomy, and the political subject of the city is a businessman.Merchants play an extremely critical role in the process of economic development in Europe but in the rise of modern European countries.Merchants are profitable. The larger the market, the larger the profit.This determines that the development of urban businessmen will inevitably generate huge motivation to break through the boundaries of the city and create a larger market.
The purpose of politicians (kings) is to rule more land and ordinary people.Like merchants, large and small kings also have an urge to expand.In terms of expansion, the king and businessmen have the same interests. Merchants need a unified national market, and the king needs a unified national country.The unity of the two forces caused a huge motivation for the formation of centralization in Europe, that is, the formation of central power.
Furthermore, the exchange between political forces and economic power has caused the European system.The king must unify the country, and the businessmen must unify the market, and the two have come together.But where do the king unify the country's money come from?The businessman becomes very important. If the merchant does not pay, the king has no money to do unified cause.Merchants can pay, but do not believe in the king.In this way, the transaction is generated.Merchants should sign a contract with the king to protect their private property rights. The protection of private property rights is a contract between the king and the businessman.But this contract alone is not enough for businessmen. How to ensure that the king continues to perform this contract after the country's unity?The second step of the businessman is to make himself the root of the political power of the king.This is the source of the earliest people's sovereignty concept in the West.
Obviously, the people here are not everyone who is talking about today, but a rich businessman.How to achieve people's sovereignty?The final ending is that the businessman occupies the parliament.The government has a government, which is the government.For a long time in modern Europe, parliament is the council of businessmen.In Europe, businessmen became the first people's group to share political power with the king.
The transformation process of political power and capitalism
The process of political power centralization is also the formation of the European nation -state, and this process is full of violence.How to unify the country has always been from the theme of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) from the NicColo Machiavelli (1469-1527) to the British.In Makiaweli and Hobbes, politics occupies an absolute position. For the country's unity, the country can be used, and the goal proof is correct.
If Makiavili and Hobbes have created Western pure politics, Hume and Adamsmi have created Western political economics. They not only discussed the economy, but also discuss politics and morality.But with the continued rise of capital, pure economics appeared in the West, that is, independence from the political economy of Hume and Adamsmi.Capital grows on the power of the country, but when capital grows, it will embark on the road of seeking autonomy, that is, to escape the constraints of politics and seek its own independent development.The process of seeking independence by capital has also created sharp changes in the relationships of economic, political and social.At least in the West, the fate of society is closely related to the independence process of the economy.And all these changes are the root causes of the development of modern social science in the West.
Businessmen (capital) rely on national power to obtain a unified national market; more businessmen have also become the foundation of politics and control the government process.This causes the unity of political and capital at the actual level.The rise of primitive capitalism is inevitable.At this stage, capital is profitable, and the overall society has become a victim of capital.When the society is unbearable, the social movement of anti -capital is inevitable.The socialist movement originated in Europe.No matter where, regardless of its original intention, the socialist movement ended with a new balance between capital and society.This process is the origin and development process of welfare countries began in Europe.
From primitive capitalism to the transformation process of later welfare capitalism is a political process, that is, the interaction between political forces, economic power and social forces.All three have the motivation to promote this transformation.As far as society is concerned, the simplest is the pursuit of at least a decent life, such as higher wages, better work and living environment, more education, and so on.That is to realize human rights in all aspects later.At the beginning of the socialist movement, people are pursuing these specific interests.
However, Marx thought that only the capitalist system and the change of ownership structure could realize these interests, so Marx advocated the revolution.Although this new consciousness was accepted by many people (especially intellectuals) at the time, at least the revolution that Marx was foreseen was not realized in Europe. It was only a revolution in Russia and other backward society.Marx emphasizes the role of social forces too much, and is not estimated to have insufficient changes in political and economic power.In fact, when the socialist movement began, capital and politics were facing a new environment, and the process of self -changes began.
The self -changes of capital are motivated.There are at least two motivations.
First, capital requires social stability.Capital must achieve self -development in the continuous investment process, so the investment environment must be expected.In order to stabilize, capital can come up with some benefits for transactions.In the case of high social differentiation, a single rule of law does not guarantee social stability.Therefore, capital does not oppose the protection of society.Not difficultSolution, the world's first social security plan was born during Bismarck, Germany, and the goal of this plan was to ensure social stability.
The second change comes from the contradiction of the capital itself. The capital needs to exploit workers on the one hand, but at the same time capital requires consumers.Capital control production, but the products they produce need to be transformed into profits through consumer consumption.The consumer market includes internal and external. When the internal market is saturated, Western capitalism has embarked on the road of expanding external expansion. On the one hand, the raw materials needed for non -Western countries to obtain production, on the other hand, dumping products.Cultivating consumers is not a kind of capital, but part of the capital profit mechanism.But at the objective level, the process of training is also a process of satisfying the interests of the workers.
Balance of politics, economy and society
The driving force of political change lies in the change of political legitimacy.Since modern times, the foundation of early monarchy is nobles, or traditional large families.After the rise of the businessman, he began to share power with the nobles, so businessmen are the main force of modern Western democratization.Although the early voters were extremely limited, they mainly had property and taxables, and did not include workers, women and ethnic minorities, but the election logic itself was expanded, that is, from a few people to the majority.With the expansion of the right to election, the foundation of political power has also changed.
In the early days, the foundation of political power was nobles and businessmen, and gradually expanded to workers.This expansion process is just the process of integrated the working class.When the foundation of political power is no longer limited to capital, the government begins to bid to society.This has made the development of Western welfare society huge motivation.For a long time after World War II, the combination of political forces and social forces was basically promoted to the great development of the welfare society.
On the one hand, the great development of the welfare society has strengthened the power of society, but it also shows the imbalance between capital, politics and society.By the 1980s, capital began to seek new ways to change the situation. This is the big background of the new liberal movement with privatization as its core in Reagan and Britain.This movement was a reaction to welfareism since World War II.From the perspective of capital, welfareism has caused the contraction of capital space, the emergence of large governments and strong society.
However, in terms of internal privatization, the effect of this movement is actually very limited, because privatization is effectively resisted in the political environment of one person and one vote.However, it has caused unprecedented success on the outside, that is, it has created the capital globalization campaign for decades.The globalization of capital has escaped the control of the country and society, and it is like fish in the world.The result is obvious, that is, the imbalance between the new capital, politics and society, that is, the huge differences of income distribution and the high division of society.
French economist Thomas Middot; Thomas Piketty's book 21st Century Capital in the Twenty-First Century discusses the severe situation of the rich and poor in contemporary world society.The question is how to solve the problem of the disparity between the rich and the poor, so that human society can continue to maintain the situation as a community, at least not disintegrating.Piker emphasized the role of the government and even put forward the idea of the united world of the world.However, reality is cruel. When the governments around the world have not been able to unite, the capital of the world has already been united.In fact, this time globalization is the result of the union of capital in the world, and the disparity between the rich and the poor global is the result of the lack of capabilities in the world's governments.
Historically, the key here is the comprehensive decoupling of western social politics and economy.Western democracy has undergone a transformation from traditional Republican democracy to contemporary popular democracy.Early democracy was elite democracy, the democracy of a few people, or the republic between a few people.But since the 1970s, with the realization of one person and one vote system, the legitimacy of politics is completely based on the votes.
This change has led to several results.First, the separation of government and development.Although economic issues are always the theme of Western elections, the association between the government and development is only indirect, and there is the most direct connection between votes and political power.
Second, even if politicians want to bear the goals of development, they find lack of effective methods to achieve development goals.In the West, the government can have a relationship with the economy.However, when the interest rate is zero, the monetary policy will fail; when the government debt is too large, the fiscal policy will fail.The Western government now tends to use quantitative easing, that is, currency issuance.But quantitative easing itself does not solve the problem, it just relieves or delays the problem.
Third, the highly differentiated social differentiation due to the difference in income differences makes traditional political parties fail the political party, and politics has lost its subject. It is becoming more and more difficult to have a effective government, let alone a government that is capable of committed to economic development.In the elite Republic, Western multi -party parties can reach consensus, because no matter who is in the government, it comes from this small circle; in a society with the main body of the middle class, multi -party can also reach consensus, because regardless of the left and right, political parties must take care of the most votes with the most votes.The interests of the middle class.However, in the era of mass democracy, especially when facing high social differentiation, political parties only rejected each other, resulting in more social differentiation.
In this context, it is not difficult to understand the anti -globalization, trade protectionism and economic nationalist ideas and populist social movements that are popular in the West today.All of these are the products of internal politics, economic and social imbalances within Western society.How can the West regain the balance through reforms?This requires people to observe.However, it is expected that when the government does not assume the responsibility of economic development, even if the government can actively fulfill the middle role (mainly tax), and leaving the responsibility of development simply to capital, it is difficult to get out of the current imbalance.
(The author is the director of the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, and the article only represents personal opinions)
