评论
打印
A crisis of global capitalism has thrown up a crisis of global politics. Or perhaps it has been the other way round. In truth, the direction of causality scarcely matters. The important point is that only good politics has the capacity to clear up the mess left by bad economics.
全球资本主义危机催生了全球政治危机。又或者反言之，政治危机导致了经济危机。事实上，哪个是因，哪个是果，一点都不重要。重要的是，只有好的政治制度才能清理坏经济制度留下的烂摊子。
The future could look brighter. From Washington to Beijing, Berlin to Buenos Aires, everyone signs up to the fact of economic interdependence. But even as the synchronised slump has underlined the implications of this integration, it has turned politics inwards. Voters want shelter from the global storms. Talk of a new architecture for the international system does not quell the anger of the dispossessed and unemployed.
未来可能看上去比较光明。从美国到中国、从德国到阿根廷，每个国家都签名同意了经济相互依赖的事实。但正当同步发生的经济萧条凸显出这种一体化的含义之际，政治也被卷了进来。选民们希望避开这场全球风暴。对构建新国际体系的讨论无法平息失去房屋和工作的人的愤怒。
For two decades the prosperity that flowed from globalisation, albeit often unevenly distributed, seemed to assure its forward momentum. The world has fallen off the bicycle. The financial crash has exposed the failures and fragilities of globalisation. The unanswered question is whether governments can build a framework to restore its political legitimacy.
20年来，全球化带来的经济繁荣——尽管通常分配不均匀——似乎保证了其向前发展的势头。世界已经从这辆“自行车”上摔了下来。金融危机已经暴露出了全球化的失败和脆弱。一个未得到解答的问题是，政府是否能够建立一个框架来恢复政治合理性。
The present international system is a relic of a bygone era – of a time when the world was described by the competing ideologies of liberal democracy and communism, and when the institutions charged with what passed for global governance were the preserve of the rich nations of the west. The fall of the Berlin Wall was held to mark the triumph of this Washington consensus. The collapse of Lehman Brothers last autumn marked its demise.
当前的国际体系是过往时代的遗迹——一个被形容为自由民主和共产主义意识形态之争的年代，一个负责制定全球治理规则的机构全都是西方富裕国家的领地的时代。柏林墙的倒下被认为是上述“华盛顿共识”(Washington consensus)胜利的标志。而雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)去年秋季的倒闭则标志着它的死亡。
Some hope the Group of 20 summit of world leaders in London early next month will provide a new answer. The G20, it is said, could turn the rising powers of the east and south into stakeholders in a refurbished global order. Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister and the summit host, has promised governments will at last bring to bear the “global solutions” needed to resolve the economic crisis. After a period of apparent indifference, Barack Obama's new US administration has said it is prepared to show leadership.
一些人希望下月初在伦敦举行的20国集团(G20)全球领导人峰会，会提供一个新的答案。据说，20国集团可能会将东方和南部的新兴国家变成全球新秩序的利益相关者。英国首相戈登•布朗(Gordon Brown)将主持此次峰会。他已承诺，各国政府将最终利用应对此次经济危机所需的“全球性解决方案”。在经历了表面上漠不关心的一段时期后，巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)领导的美国新政府已表示，准备发挥其领导作用。
