2018 考博英语 阅读经济学人文章每日精析：民主的不满
考博英语阅读大部分博士研究生招生院校都使用《经济学人》杂志文章作为题源，旭晨教育考博频道为考博生们将其中的文章进行深度分析，希望能提高大家的考博英语阅读水平，读懂长难句。
导读
爱德华·卢斯(Edward Luce)，英国《金融时报》驻华盛顿首席记者。曾担任过克林顿政府最后一位财政部长劳伦斯萨默斯的演讲稿撰写人。
在过去的12个月中，西方政坛发生了大事，但是没有人确定到底发生了什么。爱德华·卢斯所处的位置能够很好地观察到这样的变局及冲击，《西方自由主义的撤退》为大家提供了一次生动及时的调查。
Democracy’s discontent
民主的不满
A grim diagnosis for Western politics
对西方政治的一次严峻诊断
Edward Luce believes that the liberal order cannot be fixed without a clear view of what has gone wrong
爱德华·卢斯相信如果对问题没有清晰的认识，自由主义的秩序是不可能得到修复的。
Jun 22nd 2017
The Retreat of Western Liberalism. By Edward Luce.Grove Atlantic; 234 pages; $24. Little Brown; £16.99.
《西方自由主义的撤退》，爱德华·卢斯著，Grove Atlantic出版社;234页;24美元。Little Brown出版社;16.99英镑。
FEW doubt that something big happened in Western politics during the past 12 months but nobody is sure what. Turmoil in Washington and London contrasts with centrist stability in Paris and Berlin. Edward Luce, a commentator for the Financial Times in Washington, is well placed to observe the shifts and shocks. “The Retreat of Western Liberalism” offers a brisk, timely survey.
几乎所有人都确信，在过去的12个月中，西方政坛发生了大事，但是没有人确定到底发生了什么。华盛顿和伦敦的骚动与巴黎和柏林的温和稳定形成对比。《金融时报》 在华盛顿评论员爱德华·卢斯所处的位置能够很好地观察到这样的变局及冲击。《西方自由主义的撤退》为大家提供了一次生动及时的调查。
“Fusion”, the longest of just four chapters, describes the successes of economic globalisation, but also the costs borne by the less well-off in rich countries, notably Britain, America and France. Next, “Reaction” attributes the recent “degeneration” of Western politics to slowing economic growth and to the rich taking an undue share of what little growth there is.
《聚变》是仅四章的书中最长的章节，它描述了经济全球化的成功，也描述了发达国家中那些不富裕阶层付出的代价，尤其是英国、美国及法国。接下来，《反应》把近来西方政治的“退步”归结于经济增速的放缓以及富裕阶层从中攫取的不当分额。
Fusion 融合，核聚变
well-off 富裕
attribute 归因于
“Fallout” moves to geopolitics and the decline of Western hegemony. America is still unequalled in hard power. At $600bn a year, its defence spending is more than the next seven biggest spenders combined. But it must compete now with China over which of them is to fix and police global norms of trade and finance. In soft power, the kind that convinces rather than coerces, America has lost heavily in recent years. Far from a model to copy, American society is widely viewed by outsiders with puzzlement if not suspicion. The latest Democracy Index (2016) from the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company to The Economist, demoted it from full to flawed democracy because the level of political distrust in the country has risen so high. None of that hands China victory in Mr Luce’s view. Rather than a new Chinese-led world order to replace the American-led one, he thinks disorder is likelier.
《微尘》谈及地缘政治和西方霸权的衰落。美国在硬实力方面依然首屈一指。国防部每年国防支出6000亿美元，比排在它后面的七个国家加起来的还要多。但是它现在不得不和中国竞争决定谁来修改和维护全球贸易和金融准则。近年来，在让别国信服而不是威逼利诱的软实力方面，美国已经下降太多。美国社会现在已经不再是一个值得效仿的社会，在外人看来，不是觉得怀疑就是感到困惑。由经济学人智库，经济学人的姐妹公司做出的一项最新民主指数(2016)调查显示了美国的民主由完整变得破洞百出，因为这个国家的政治怀疑已经上升到很高的高度。但这些都没有让卢斯觉得胜利是中国的。他认为与其说一个新的由中国领导的世界秩序将取代美国领导秩序，不如说失序更有可能。
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