民粹主义研究的概念泛化问题及其辩证

Abstract

【中文摘要】作为当前最富争论的学术概念之一，民粹主义已经成为指涉欧美国家诸多社会思潮、社会运动、政治策略和政策论述的常用术语。这一现象是新自由主义全球化、社会经济结构两极化和社交媒体催化的产物，客观反映出西方各派政治势力在选举政治动员与政策论述中持续不断的“框架整合”需求。概念的过度延伸导致民粹主义从一个左派思潮的元概念沦为包含左、右翼民粹主义的宽泛概念，甚至与民族主义概念相混淆，造成“民粹民族主义”和“民族民粹主义”的“概念创新”现象。事实上，民粹主义的概念内涵应包括经济平等主义、政治平等和直接参与、文化通俗化、反精英主义和反自由多元主义。作为面向社会底层的独特意识形态体系，民粹主义具有左派倾向。民粹主义反对精英主义和社会不平等，可以视为自由民主的部分内容，但其对政治代议制度、优绩统治和自由多元主义的过度挑战，又有损民主精神和政治的制度化。 【Abstract】 Over the past two decades，populism has gained popularity dramatically as a widely-used but hotly-debated academic term referring to various social ideas and movements as well as political strategy and policy discourse. This phenomenon has been driven by neoliberal globalism， socioeconomic polarization and social media， reflecting power of framing of various political forces. Conceptual overstretching has led to a number of ambiguous terms，such as ring-wing populism，left-wing populism，populist nationalism and nationalist populism，among others.This article intends to clarify the connotation of populism with five basic features，including economic egalitarianism，political equality and direct participation, cultural popularization，anti-elitism and anti-liberal-pluralism. It defines populism as a unique ideological system favoring the underclass and carrying a flavor of leftism. While it may supplement the ideas of liberal democracy by challenging elitism and social inequality，its extreme opposition against political representation，meritocracy and particularly liberal pluralism may hurt the spirit of democracy and political institutionalization.