美式民主中的“抹黑”之喧--19世纪美国政坛舆论背景的特性分析

摘要

With respect to the characteristics of the public opinion in American politics arena, President Theodore Roosevelt coined the“muck-rake” to describe them.In real politics, however, the just and honorable“muckraking” degenerated, almost from the very beginning, into the “blackening” ( or discrediting) among political parties.In Mark Twain's well-known novel Running for Governor, the author unfolds a chaotic scenario of merciless struggle among political parties under the background of the democratic system.Nevertheless, negative effects of the“blackening” on political order are to be restrained to a large ex-tent if it is set in the framework of modern representative democracy.Moreover, the“blackening” is supposed to be conducive to the guarantee of civil rights and the promotion of people's concerns on the public realm.%关于美国政坛舆论背景的特性，西奥多·罗斯福总统最先使用了“揭丑”一词来概括，不过在现实政治中，光明正大的“揭丑”活动几乎从一开始就堕落为党派间的“抹黑”行径，而在马克·吐温脍炙人口的短篇小说《竞选州长》中，世人更是看到了美式民主制度下党派恶斗的生动表现。然而，当这种“抹黑”的舆论背景被置于现代代议制民主框架之中后，它对于政治秩序的破坏性不仅在很大程度上得到抑制，而且在保障公民权利、提高公民对公共领域的关注度方面，还具有一定的建设性功用。