2013年4月9日 星期二

Thatcher Freed Market Forces, and Europe Is Still Adjusting

 

 

Thatcher Freed Market Forces, and Europe Is Still Adjusting

 

「鐵娘子」辭世,爭議繼續


瑪格麗特·撒切爾(Margaret Thatcher)逝世的消息於周一傳出,與她相隔好幾代的繼任者、英國首相戴維·卡梅倫(David Cameron)隨即縮短了在西班牙的訪問行程。他原本打算通過此行處理撒切爾夫人最擔心的問題之一,即英國對與歐洲建立更深刻聯繫的疑慮。
 As word of Margaret Thatcher’s death spread on Monday, her successor several times removed, Prime Minister David Cameron, cut short a trip to Spain intended to address what had been among her greatest concerns — British suspicions about deeper ties with Europe.

但是,撒切爾夫人對英國、歐洲以及世界政治和經濟的影響極大地超越了她驕傲的民族主義情懷。從1979年當選首相的時候開始,她就把自己的方針加給 了充滿分歧且不情不願的英國,在她離世之際,這項方針仍然餘音裊裊。它的基礎是對市場力量的信念、不惜為長期繁榮實行短期緊縮的意願,以及對很多歐洲國家 所珍視的福利國家所需要的財政和社會成本所持的懷疑甚至反對立場。But Mrs. Thatcher’s imprint on the politics and economics of her nation, Europe and the world extended well beyond her proud nationalism. The approach she imposed on a divided and reluctant Britain starting with her election as prime minister in 1979 continue to echo even at her death. It was built on a faith in market forces, a willingness to impose short-term austerity in the service of long-term prosperity and skepticism or even hostility to the fiscal and social costs of the welfare state cherished by much of Europe.
她與羅納德·里根(Ronald Reagan)總統一起定義了現代保守主義。共產主義倒台後,撒切爾夫人創立的那種資本主義理念逐漸風靡全球。此外,她還在釋放市場力量和解決社會難題方 面發揮了作用,她的方法尚待很多社會學習。即使在她辭世的當天,從塞浦路斯到葡萄牙再到美國的各國領導人和公民仍然在就定義了撒切爾政治遺產的那些政策進 行激烈辯論。那些政策今天仍然在她的祖國表現出影響,即便到了現在,英國仍然是緊縮政策的實驗場。Along with President Ronald Reagan, with whom she helped define modern conservatism, Mrs. Thatcher developed a strain of capitalism that became dominant around the world with the fall of communism. But she also helped unleash market forces and unravel social compacts in ways that many societies have yet to come to grips with. Even on the day of her death, leaders and citizens from Cyprus to Portugal to Washington were enmeshed in emotional debates over the policies that defined her legacy. Those cross currents continue to play out in her own country, a laboratory even now for austerity policies.
正如紛紛湧現的諸多悼詞所說,87歲的撒切爾夫人改變了英國。她竭力縮減政府在經濟中的作用,為大規模私有化和撤銷管制打通了道路,將財富合法化,並且釋放了同胞們追求回報的創業激情,這樣的激情似乎仍然讓歐洲大陸感到不安。
她還曾經滿懷激情地捍衛自己的觀點,即英國是世界上的一個重要強國,擁有獨立於27個歐盟(European Union)國家之外的利益和影響力。對於由法國牽頭的敦促歐洲進一步實現一體化的舉動,撒切爾夫人曾在議會上發出廣為人知的宣言:“不行!不行!不 行!”她還寄希望於英美兩國的“特殊關係”,打算藉此讓英國對國際事務發揮自身的影響力。卡梅倫公開採用了她的理念,走上了一條大致相同的道路。


卡梅倫中止歐洲之行,於周一返回倫敦視察撒切爾夫人葬禮的準備工作。同日,首相府宣布葬禮將於下周舉行,其中將包括一個按最高軍事禮節舉辦的儀式, 葬禮地點則是聖保羅大教堂(St. Paul’s Cathedral)。官員並未提供其他細節,只是說葬禮安排將與1997年威爾士王妃戴安娜(Diana)在巴黎死於車禍後的安排相似。當年,馬拉的彈 藥車運載着戴安娜的靈柩在軍事儀仗隊的護送下穿過了倫敦的人群。
上一位獲得類似禮遇的首相是1965年逝世的溫斯頓·丘吉爾(Winston Churchill),這種相似性表明英國將撒切爾夫人視作一位歷史性人物。就像她的很多崇拜者在周一說的那樣,她可能是英國和平時期最偉大的領袖。

但是,紀念活動當中也夾雜着一些尖刻以至刻薄的追憶之詞,這些言論來自那些認為撒切爾夫人具有破壞性的人,尤其是政治左翼人士。那些人認為撒切爾夫人破壞了戰後英國的經濟和社會結構,並使之成為一個更為分裂、更為自私的國家,窮人的不滿情緒比近代史上任何時期都要強烈。

Across the world, as in Europe, the response to Mrs. Thatcher’s death appeared to oscillate between similar poles. Many foreign leaders and commentators spoke about her as President Barack Obama did, as ‘'one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and as an example to women that ‘'there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered.'’
與歐洲的情形一樣,世界各地對撒切爾夫人逝世的反應似乎也出現了類似的兩極分化。許多外國領導人和評論員對她的評價與貝拉克·奧巴馬總統 (Barack Obama)相同,稱她是“自由權利和自由精神的偉大捍衛者,也是女性的典範,證明了世上沒有不能打碎的玻璃天花板。”然而,也有一些人,特別是政治左翼 人士,恨恨不已地提到了以撒切爾主義之名在全球範圍蔓延的政治風尚,這種風尚帶來了社會主義的式微、計劃經濟在所有大陸崩潰,並且提倡這樣一種方針——通 過自由市場來創造財富,共享繁榮,達到社會主義再分配無法達到的目標。

這種思想對歐洲的影響最為強烈,但英國與歐洲大陸國家的關係並沒有因此變得密切。1990年,撒切爾夫人被自己所在政黨的精英推翻,從此淡出政治舞 台,此後,英國與歐洲各國越加疏遠。歐元是實現一體化的重要手段,英國卻沒有加入歐元區,也沒有簽署允許人們自由穿越歐洲大陸內部邊境的申根協議。實際 上,迫於本黨內部強大的歐洲懷疑論潮流,卡梅倫已經承諾就英國是否繼續留在歐盟舉行公投。

因此,要說周一的什麼事件可以象徵撒切爾夫人理念的碩果,那就是英國首相在歐洲之旅伊始放棄行程,回到英國,在這個歐洲懷疑論的聖地進行哀悼,這種懷疑論的影響力仍然在為諸多意識形態激情推波助瀾。

在很多英國人的印象中,撒切爾夫人是一位強勢、備受爭議,但卻受人尊敬的人物,她給英國人的生活和社會造成了持久的爭議性影響。對於有關國家在自由 社會中所任角色的政治思考,她的影響無遠弗屆,遠遠越出了英國國境。回到英國之後,卡梅倫說,撒切爾夫人不只是領導了英國,“她拯救了我們的國家。”

Mrs. Thatcher, 87, as many of the eulogies pouring in to her said, transformed Britain, battling for a smaller role for the state in the economy, opening the way for sweeping privatization and deregulation, legitimizing wealth, and unleashing acquisitive, entrepreneurial passions among her compatriots that still seem to make continental Europeans uncomfortable.
She also passionately defended her view of Britain as a significant power in the world, with interests and influences of her own that were independent of the 27-nation European Union. Just as Mrs. Thatcher once famously declared ‘'No! No! No!'’ in Parliament to a French-led push for closer European integration, and looked to Britain’s ‘'special relationship'’ with the United States as a way of leveraging Britain’s own weight in international affairs, Mr. Cameron, publicly espousing her legacy, has trodden a broadly similar path.
As Mr. Cameron broke off his European journey to return to London on Monday to oversee preparations for Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral, 10 Downing Street announced that the funeral, to take place next week, would include a service with full military honors, with the service itself at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Officials gave no other details, beyond saying that the arrangements would be similar to those made after the death in a Paris car crash in 1997 of Diana, Princess of Wales, whose coffin was carried through crowds in London on a horse-drawn caisson with an honor guard of military outriders.
The last prime minister to be accorded similar honors was Winston Churchill in 1965, a similarity that spoke for Britain’s sense of Mrs. Thatcher as a historical figure, and as many of her admirers said on Monday, as perhaps the country’s greatest peacetime leader.
But the commemorations were accompanied, too, by more acerbic, even vitriolic, remembrances from those, particularly on the political left, who saw her as a destructive figure, who had ruptured the economic and social fabric of post-war Britain and left a country that was more divided, more selfish, and, for the have-nots, more resentful than at any time in its recent history.



However, there were others, particularly on the political left, who spoke with bitterness of the political vogue that spread across the globe in the name of Thatcherism, and which saw the rollback of socialism and the dismantling of command economies in virtually every continent, in favor of an approach that saw the free market as a vehicle to generate wealth and spread prosperity in a way that socialist redistribution never could.
But, where that legacy had its strongest impact, in Europe, it has not brought Britain close to its continental cousins. Since Mrs. Thatcher’s retirement from active politics in 1990, toppled by her own party elite, Britain has drifted further from Europe. It is not a member of key vehicles of integration — the euro currency, the Schengen accord on free travel across the continent’s internal frontiers. Indeed, bowing to the powerful euroskeptic currents in his own party, Mr. Cameron has promised a referendum on continued British membership in the E.U.
So if there was a symbol of the fruits of the Thatcher legacy on Monday it was that of a British prime minister abandoning an overture to Europe to return home to mourn at a shrine to euroskepticism whose influence still tugs at many ideological passions.
Many Britons remembered Mrs. Thatcher as a dominant, divisive and yet revered figure, whose impact on British life and society was enduring and contentious, and whose pervasive influence on political thinking about the role of the state in free societies spread far beyond Britain’s shores. Mrs. Thatcher did not simply lead Britain, Mr. Cameron said as he returned home, ‘'she saved our country.'’
‘'She was the patriot prime minister,'’ Mr. Cameron, recalling her role in shaping Britain’s relationship with the European Union. He said Parliament would be recalled on Wednesday for a special session in her honor.

追憶撒切爾夫人在塑造英國與歐盟關係的過程中發揮的作用時,卡梅倫表示,“她是一位熱愛祖國的首相。”卡梅倫表示,議會將於周三召開特別會議,向撒切爾表達敬意。
翻譯:陳柳、許欣



 [ロンドン 8日 ロイター] 「鉄の女」と呼ばれ、国営企業の民営化などで内外の保守派に影響を与えたマーガレット・サッチャー元英首相が8日午前、脳卒中で死去した。87歳だった。
 以下は、サッチャー氏の訃報に各国の指導者から寄せられたコメント。
 ●国を救い、多大な勇気を示した
 <デービッド・キャメロン英首相>
 偉大な指導者、偉大な首相、偉大な英国人を失った。国のためによく働き、国を救い、実行に当たって多大な勇気を示したという事実は遺産となるだろう。人々は今後数十年、恐らく数世紀にわたって、彼女の成果や功績を学ぶことになる。
 ●言葉に重みがある政治家
 <ミハイル・ゴルバチョフ元ソ連大統領>
 言葉に非常に重みがある政治家だった。われわれは最終的に相互理解を実現し、それがソ連と西側との雰囲気の変化につながり、冷戦終結にも寄与した。
 ●自由と権利の偉大な擁護者
 <バラク・オバマ米大統領>
 世界は自由と権利の偉大な擁護者の1人を失い、米国は真の友人を亡くした。米国人の多くは、サッチャー氏がレーガン元大統領と肩を並べる姿を忘れないだろう。それは、世界が歴史の流れだけで動くのではなく、道徳的な信条とゆるぎない勇気、鉄の意志で形作ることができることを思い出させてくれる。
 ●世界の政治状況を変えた指導者
 <トニー・ブレア前英首相>
 自国だけでなく、世界の政治状況を変えた非常にまれな指導者だった。マーガレットはそんなリーダーだった。
 ●東欧の自由化運動のために立ち上がった
 <アンゲラ・メルケル独首相>
 個人の自由というものが彼女の信念の核だった。マーガレット・サッチャーは、早くから東欧における自由化運動の強さを認識し、そのために立ち上がった。


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