与自由主义民主脱钩
长期以来，自由主义垄断了民主的定义权和评价权，自由主义者认为他们理所当然是民主的。这可能是许多自由主义政权未能为其人民带来民主成果的一个原因。如果自由主义国家以实际结果而非程序来作为衡量民主的标准，也可能会推动这些国家实施本国急需的改革。如果自由主义政权能够再次带来更民主的成果，全世界也该乐见其成。
“以结果论民主”这个观点在全世界关于治理的讨论中鲜有出现。自由主义社会此前一直在各个层面倡导多样性，但对民主模式的多样性却连在概念层面都避而不谈。但事实上，民主的理想和实践有着丰富多彩的历史。除了非自由主义的雅典民主制，在中国的儒家传统中存在着长达数个世纪的民主理想和制度实践，而这同样不是自由主义的。此时此刻，世界需要进行更多样化的民主实践。
我并无意倡导某种特定形式的民主，也不是要推崇多数主义或直接民主——这也不是中国的制度。相反，我建议扩大民主的定义和衡量标准，并使之多元化。中国目前所实行的社会主义民主无疑是一个值得研究的范式，因为这个国家取得了显著的成功。
美国外交政策学家安妮·玛丽·斯劳特（Anne Marie Slaughter）最近提出：“美国至少（应该）接受一种可能性，那就是其他形式的政府可能更好。”她进一步建议，我们可以把实现联合国可持续发展目标作为衡量政府表现的新标准，以此评估哪国政府表现得更好。
我为这样的好主意点赞！让我们结束自由主义对民主的定义权和评判权的垄断，让丰富多彩的民主百花齐放！
翻页可参看英文原文
on the failure of liberal democracy and the rise of China’s way
Eric Li
ALARM BELLS are ringing about the state of democracy. Freedom House proclaims the “global decline in democracy has accelerated” and that even in America it has “declined significantly”. Much of the weakening is happening in countries that are aligned with America, according to research by the V-Dem Institute in Sweden. Larry Diamond, a political sociologist, argues that the “democratic recession” has reached a “crisis”, intensified by the pandemic. There are many diagnoses. Francis Fukuyama, a political scientist, believes the American government is captured by elites and the public is divided by cultural identities. And then there are those who always reach for the easy answer, blaming China and Russia.
On the other side of the spectrum, democracy’s sceptics are enjoying a moment of Schadenfreude. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, recently criticised the West’s failed attempts to “enforce democracy” on other countries whose cultures were ill fitted for such political systems and called on them to stop. Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat and scholar, believes America has in some ways “all the attributes of a failed state.” A decade ago even I weighed in, arguing that China’s model is superior to the West—a smug way of saying democracy is doomed.
