In the past few decades, for many developing countries and regions, people are facing a comprehensive and developed West.Everything in the West, including economic freedom, political democracy, social welfare, etc., everything is desirable. I hope that your country can also get all this in the short period of time.As a result, in the concept of many people, it seems that all good things can appear and obtain at the same time.
If you examine the social protest movements that happened in the West and Non -Western countries for decades, it is not difficult for people to find that there is a huge difference, that is, in Western countries, the purpose of social protest movements is often specific interests, more benefits, more, more, more, more, more, more, more, and more, more, more, more, more, and more.The right to; and in non -Western countries, the purpose of social protests is more of abstract value, especially democracy, freedom and human rights.
In terms of economic reform, for a long time, people continue to controversy the Big Bang theory and methods.This method emphasizes that all economic reforms are carried out at the same time, and they are in order to achieve one battle.This theory is in line with the psychology of many people's anxiety, so it is very attractive and experimented in different places, but people have great controversy about the results of this method.This method was first quoted by British Prime Minister Sache in the 1980s, which was cited to Britain's financial reform, mainly to relax financial control in all directions.
This reform has contributed to London, England to become a world financial center, but people also believe that this reform has also contributed to the global financial crisis after 2007.This method was later applied to the reform of Russia and Eastern Europe, which is full privatization.However, the effect is also questionable.Although Russia and Eastern European countries have embarked on the free market roads in the West, the economic performance of these countries is not ideal and often crises.In particular, compared with China, which is approaching the path of reform, the economic performance of Russia and Eastern European countries is dwarn.
If people apply the Big Bang theory to the development of a country, can a similar question be raised, that is, can a country develop a comprehensive development of political, economic, and society at the same time, and one step becomes a country like the West?Although at the theoretical level, people can argue about this, but from the actual experience, no country can do so.In terms of realism, in terms of national development, there is no development model in the world that has done its best in one battle, and people have to face the choice of fish and bear's paw.
That's the case even in the West.What the West owned today is gradually realized in the long historical stage.British sociologist T. H. Marshall proposed the three -stage theory of Western rights realization. It is believed that the order of the realization of the rights of Western countries is the 18th century realized personal freedom (free capitalism). The 19th century realized political rights (electoral rights). 20The century realized social rights (welfare society).
Marshall's theory is more of an experience description of England's development, explaining the stage of realization of rights.However, this theory has also been criticized by many people, especially feminists. They believe that Marshall describes only white male workers in England, not to other social groups, especially women, including women, including women.Second-class citizens.
Even at the theoretical level, Marshall's theory has logical problems.For example, if a country first realizes personal rights, how does the personal rights develop into social benefits that reflect collective rights?If the personal rights are first realized, the individual of rationality (selfish) will not give up their rights and transfer their rights to collective.
In terms of experience, indeed, the world's first social security plan occurs in conservative Germany, not freedom Britain.From Marx's primitive capitalism, the transformation of welfare capitalism in the 20th century is not to say the natural transformation of capitalism, but the product of the political and social reforms of European countries under the promotion of a strong socialist movement.
There is a variant of capitalism in the West, which distinguishes British and American capitalism that emphasize freedom and the collective European continent (France, Germany, etc.) that emphasize collectives.Britain has achieved welfare society after World War II due to factors such as World War I, World War II, and Keynesianism. However, the United States, as a free capitalist base, is still far behind European countries in terms of social welfare.
Welfare society is facing huge challenges
Even for the welfare society, regardless of the theoretical or practical level, it has always faced huge challenges.Theoretically, shortly after the British welfare policy appeared, it was severely criticized.F. A. Hayek's classic of the Constitution of Liberty is the classics of the Constitution of Liberty.The former was written in London, England during World War II, and was regarded as a Bible against the welfare society.
In the 1970s, due to the factors such as the oil crisis and the economic stagnation, the critics aimed at the welfare society. They believed that the expansion of the welfare society had destroyed the governance of democracy and caused the democratic crisis in the West.By the 1980s, the New Liberalist Revolution in Britain and the United States Reagan in the United Kingdom.The core of neo -liberalism is economic freedom (liberalization and relaxation control), controlling society (trade union), and reducing benefits.
The Obama government issued a medical reform bill on the poor (especially the black group), but Trump first came to power and first abolished the bill.In other words, even in the West, the realization of the rights of all aspects is not natural, but the product of various social forces interaction.There is no situation where people and bear paws are not available.
However, compared with the situation facing developing countries later, the process of western countries in the process of gradually realizing different rights is indeed natural, that is, it is achieved without high -intensity pressure (especially external pressure).Here you can give you the most concerned right (political rights) that the country is most concerned about today.
France is the first country in the world to give the people the power to the people.The Constitution in 1793 stipulated this right, but there was no election afterwards.France conducted the first universal election in 1848, but then France's general election right was stagnant, and it was not until 1944 that nearly 100 years later did it be given the right to election.Switzerland was regarded by Samuel Huntington as a model of the first wave of democratization, but this country's women's election rights did not realize until 1971.
In many other European countries, although the right of men's universal election is later than France, the acquisition of women's election rights earlier than France.In addition to many other reasons for this kind of men and women, they are even more influenced by concepts.
In the European Enlightenment, although there are also a few philosophers calling on the right to choose, more philosophers include the most aggressive Jean-Jacques Rousseau also believe that politics is the public domain, while the public domain belongs to men, only men, only men.Only to become citizens, and women belong to the fields of private, family or nature.For a long time, similar concepts are not only accepted by men, but also women.It was not until the new thoughts appeared later that people realized that the original rights were unfair. Women were starting their rights or being given rights.
Even though it has developed to this day, although in comparison, all aspects of Western society are already very developed, most Western countries are also undergoing uncoordinated development in various aspects, showing a dynamic process.Especially the globalization of the past 30 years has completely changed the balanced state of the original maintenance of Western society., Leading to high degree of political, economic and social imbalances.This is also the severe challenge facing Western society today.
In any case, the construction of countries in most Western countries, from the fixation of territorial boundaries to the establishment of territorial rule to the realization of the power of democratic participation in the public, has gone through a century of time, with sufficient time to solve different periods of different periods.Facing the problem is often one thing at a time.But for the third world countries, they face all this at the same time.To put it simply, compared with the West, most developing countries are facing compression development, that is, at the same time facing the needs of all -round development of politics, economy, and society.
A reality is that compared with the West, most developing countries are facing the dilemma of low social and economic development, lack of development, or even no development; but in terms of social needs, economic development, political freedom and social welfare are needed.EssenceIf the developed countries have experienced economic development, political freedom, and social benefits after three centuries, no developing countries can wait so long.Essence
The disadvantages of post -developing countries are involved here.At the material level, as the New Marxism is said, the capitalist economy spreads and develops from Western (center) to non -Western (edge).Low -end, lack of high -quality capital and technology, etc.).
In terms of concept, because Western countries have realized economic, political, and social rights, post -developing countries have naturally accepted all these rights concepts, and they also believe that all these rights can not only be realized at the same time.There is no doubt that there is a huge or even insurmountable gap between the concept and reality.
The path of economic, re -society, and then politics
As Marshall said, Western countries first realized economic development, then political rights, and then social benefits.But an obvious fact is that after World War II, the new and independent countries spread the right to election to men and women in one step.That is to say, most Western countries have spent more than a century before realizing political rights, which is reflected in real realization in the new independent countries.
On the surface, this can be said to be a huge progress, because the people of the new independent country need to get political rights without waiting for so long.But from a reality, because without any social and economic support, this political rights often have no substantial significance.
In developed countries, the realization of political rights helps to divide cakes, that is, social welfare, but the cakes of emerging countries are small or even without existence.Under such circumstances, political rights have not only evolved into elections for the election, but also become a major resistance to make the cake bigger.It is not difficult to observe that emerging countries after World War II, in theory, have all the west, including constitutional government, multi -party system, national elections, media and freedom of speech, freedom of rally, etc., but in reality, these rightsJust staying on the paper and never achieved it.Although the autocracy, dictatorship, corruption, etc. of the leadership of these countries are regarded as the root cause of rights without fulfilling their rights, people must see the socio -economic root of these behaviors.
In response to the development of developing countries, Albert Hirschman, who is regarded as the Worldly Philosopher, is not satisfied with the theory of the balanced development of classical economics, and proposes a non -balanced development model, that is, a country cannotAt the same time, we can get development in all aspects, but to break through, find the starting point of development, and promote the development in all aspects one by one.
The theory of non -balanced development believes that in reality, no good things can happen together, and it is difficult for people to meet all their wishes at the same time.For example, the improvement of economic growth and income distribution can occur at the same time, or it can occur at different times; economic growth can occur together with political openness, or it can occur at the same time as political autocracy; the consolidation of democracy can promote the sustainable economic development of the economy, but also alsoCan appear at the same time as the decline of the economy.
Of course, this is not to say that post -developing countries have no advantages; on the contrary, post -developed countries have many advantages, especially in the economic and social fields.The post -development advantage theory proposed by Harvard economist Alexander Gerschenkron was widely used in post -developing countries.Simply put, post -developing countries can learn from developing countries, take less detours, and even (in today's words) overtaking.
The experience of Japan and Asia (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong) can explain the development advantage.The development of these economies does not show the path of economic, re -society, and politics in accordance with the pre -economic, re -political, and post -social western model mentioned in Marshall.That is, to fully combine the development of the government and the market to achieve economic development, and then achieve social development through the efforts of the government and the market, and start political democratization on the basis of economic and social development.
This model has made these economies not only escape the middle income traps that people say, but historically, compared with early Western democratization, the democratization of these economies is relatively peaceful.Today, although the development model of mainland China has its particularity, it basically follows this model.
To this day, most developing countries are still in the development stage of neither fish nor bears. How to develop is still a huge challenge facing these countries.But even the developed economies (including the four Asia dragons), it is difficult to say that it can always do good things together.When the economy is good, the realization of rights in all aspects is relatively easy; but when the economy is not good, there will be a situation where fish and bear's paw are difficult to obtain at the same time.
What is more severe is that people's choices are different, some groups choose fish, some groups choose bear's paw, different income groups, different political tendencies, and groups of different ages.Status, in an extremely divided state.
(The author is a professor at the East Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore)
The article only represents personal point of view
