评论 | 美国民主的迷思

Activists and demonstrators take part in a march and demonstration at the U.S. Capitol during the MoveOn and Poor People's Build Back Better Action in Washington, D.C., November 15, 2021. /Getty

Editor's note: Alfred de Zayas is a professor of international law at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and was United Nations Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

编者按：阿尔弗雷德·德·扎亚斯是日内瓦外交学院国际法教授，曾于2012至2018年担任联合国国际秩序独立专家。本文仅代表作者观点，不代表CGTN的观点。

In a world of fake news, fake history, fake law, fake diplomacy, it is no surprise to encounter fake democracy along the way. On November 22, the Washington Post reported that the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in its latest report downgraded the U.S. to the category of a "backsliding" democracy.  But was the U.S. ever a "bastion of global democracy" as the IDEA and the Washington Post editors pretend?

在一个充满假新闻、假历史、假法律、假外交的世界里，遇到假民主不足为奇。11月22日，《华盛顿邮报》报道称，总部位于瑞典斯德哥尔摩的国际民主和选举援助学会（IDEA）在其最新报告中将美国降级为“民主倒退国家”。但是，曾经的美国是否如IDEA和《华盛顿邮报》的编辑宣称的那样是“全球民主的堡垒”？

In my reports to the United Nations General Assembly and Human Rights Council, I said that democracy means the correlation of the will of the people and the governmental policies that affect them. Democratic governance is much more than ritual periodic elections, but entails genuine policy choices, people's power to propose legislation, challenge laws and regulations by referendum, demand transparency and accountability from government. 

我曾在提交给联合国大会和联合国人权理事会的报告中说过，民主是指民众的意愿与影响他们的政府政策的相关性。民主政治不仅仅是例行公事的定期选举，而需要真正的政策选择，需要民众有权力进行立法建议、通过公投挑战法律法规、要求政府透明度和问责制。

Moreover, a well-informed electorate is necessary for a functioning democracy. This means that there must be access to truthful information and a plurality of views. This is sabotaged both by government and private-sector manipulation of news.  Noam Chomsky said: "Far from advancing democracy, the U.S. media conglomerates and corporate press, including the New York Times and Washington Post, undermine it by manufacturing consent."

此外，要使民主正常运行，选民必须充分知情。这意味着选民必须能够获得真实信息和多种观点。而政府和私营部门通过操纵新闻破坏了这一点。诺姆·乔姆斯基说：“美国的传媒集团和媒体企业，包括《纽约时报》和《华盛顿邮报》在内，非但没有推进民主，反而通过‘制造共识’来破坏民主。”

As an American citizen, I vote every two years, but I know that our two-party system has proven to be undemocratic. Indeed, whether I vote Republican or Democrat, I get more of the same, because both parties are committed to exceptionalism, imperialism, interventionism, Wall Street over Main Street. It is like having to choose between two beverages that almost taste the same, like Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Both parties approve of killing tens of thousands of civilians with drones. Both approve the use of radioactive depleted-uranium weapons. Both persecute journalists and whistleblowers who dare disclose the crimes committed in our name. Both parties are strongly pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian. Both impose illegal unilateral coercive measures on countries that do not obey Uncle Sam's political orders.

作为美国公民，我每两年投一次票，但我深知美国的两党制并不民主。事实上，无论我投票给共和党还是民主党，结果都差不多，因为两党都奉行美国例外主义、帝国主义、干涉主义，都看重金融巨头而非普通民众。这就像是必须在百事可乐和可口可乐这两种口味几乎相同的饮料之间进行选择。两党都赞成用无人机杀戮数万平民；都同意使用贫铀武器；都迫害勇敢的记者和吹哨人，因为他们揭露了那些以民众名义犯下的罪行；都强烈支持以色列而反对巴勒斯坦；都会对不服从美国政府命令的国家采取非法的单边威胁措施。

House Minority Leader Representative Kevin McCarthy speaks at a gathering outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., November 17, 2021. /Getty

You do not have to be an anarchist to realize that our establishment intends and has the power to perpetuate itself. Of course, the electorate is invited to participate in choosing which of the two parties should oppress them, but this is a kind of theater, entertainment for the masses. Billions of dollars are wasted in the myth of democratic elections but, as has been variously attributed to Emma Goldman and Kurt Tucholsky: "If elections would change anything, they would be abolished."

即使你不是无政府主义者，也能意识到美国政府打算并有能力长久存在。当然，选民受邀选择由哪个党派来压迫他们，这本身就是一个娱乐大众的戏码。数十亿美元被浪费在民主选举的迷思中，而正如艾玛·戈德曼和库尔特·图霍尔斯基所认为的那样：“如果选举能改变任何事情，它就会被废除。”

IDEA is being intellectually dishonest when it focuses on the undemocratic proclivities of Donald Trump, but does not address root causes of problems, the legacy of slavery and discrimination, including against the indigenous Cree, Sioux, Navajo – the "unsung victims" of the U.S. corporatocracy. IDEA manipulates when it applauds "pro-democracy movements" worldwide — i.e., those groups, mostly financed by the West, whose function is to destabilize and promote undemocratic "color revolutions" and foreign-imposed regime change.

IDEA确实关注了特朗普的不民主倾向，但对问题的根源却避而不谈，这是不诚实的。不民主的根源是奴隶制和歧视的遗留问题，包括对美国企业制度“无名受害者”的歧视，即对克里族、苏族、纳瓦霍族原住民的歧视。世界各地的那些所谓“支持民主运动”团体主要是由西方国家资助的，其目的在于破坏稳定、推动不民主的“颜色革命”、实现外国强加的政权更替。IDEA为这些运动喝彩就是一种操纵。

Of course, aspects of democracy do exist in the U.S., as they also exist in China, Russia, Belarus, Cuba and Venezuela. The questions that IDEA should be posing instead are how to facilitate public participation in the conduct of public affairs, how to advance toward peace and social justice, how to ensure access to information and a true "marketplace of ideas." IDEA belongs to the "narrative managers" who act as an echo chamber for the establishment. It misses the point when it targets Hungary, Poland and Slovenia for a supposed democratic decline, instead of addressing endemic demophobia in most EU member states, where public demonstrations are suppressed – and not just those against the lockdowns resulting from the pandemic. Evidently, IDEA applies double standards.

当然，美国确实有一些民主的方面，但这些在中国、俄罗斯、白俄罗斯、古巴和委内瑞拉也都有。IDEA提出的问题应该是关于如何促进民众参与公共事务、如何推动和平与社会正义、如何保证民众信息渠道畅通并确保实现真正的“意见市场”。IDEA属于“叙事管理者”，其作用是政府的“回音室”。欧盟大多数成员国都有“民主恐惧症”，它们镇压公众游行，包括那些反对新冠疫情封锁的示威。然而，IDEA对这些国家的情况视而不见，却针对匈牙利、波兰、斯洛文尼亚，大谈其民主衰落。IDEA的如此作为已经迷失了方向，它显然采用了双重标准。

The democratic backsliding was visible in France with the repression of the "yellow vests," in Spain with the brutal suppression of the self-determination referendum in Catalonia in 2017, the brutality of the Guardia Civil against peaceful voters, pregnant women, old ladies, the use of rubber bullets against citizens going to vote – I myself interviewed some of these victims. How can IDEA remain silent on the existence of political prisoners in Spain, whose only "crime" is to demand the implementation of their right to hold a referendum, a right protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 1, 19, 25)? 

民主倒退在欧盟国家并不鲜见：法国政府对“黄背心”运动的镇压；2017年西班牙政府对加泰罗尼亚独立公投进行残酷镇压，国民警卫队对手无寸铁的选民、孕妇、老人使用暴力，对去投票的公民使用橡皮子弹。我本人就采访过其中一些受害者。IDEA怎么能对西班牙的政治犯熟视无睹？他们唯一的“罪行”就是要求行使自己进行公投的权利，而这是一项受《公民权利和政治权利国际公约》（第1条、19条、25条）保护的权利。

In countless resolutions, the UN General Assembly has acknowledged that there is no single model of democracy, that democracy cannot be exported but must be home-grown, that each country should find its own way consistent with the right of self-determination of peoples and the principles of the UN Charter.

联大已在不计其数的决议中提到，没有单一的民主模式，民主不能输出，民主必须是本土的，每个国家都应该找到符合民众自决权和《联合国宪章》原则的道路。

As UN rapporteur, I denounced the wrong priorities of inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations that seem to be intent on keeping the status quo so that the rich will remain rich and the poor will stay poor.

作为联合国调查员，我谴责了政府间组织和非政府组织的错误优先事项，这些组织似乎有意维持现状，以便使富人恒富，穷人恒贫。

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