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美国世纪结束了吗? 本章结语
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正如我们前面所看到的,古罗马的经济没有效率,社会因自相残杀的内战而四分五裂,政治体制则腐败猖獗,所有这些令罗马无力自保。上述事实使人很难将美国与罗马类比。
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在美国,文化存在着分歧,但这种分歧依然是可管控的,而且与过去相比其危险性更小。社会问题比比皆是,有些每况愈下而有些得到了改善。社会对外部世界保持着开放,也能通过移民比其他大多数国家更好地自我更新。美国经济的增长速度比过去更慢了,但企业文化在技术的运用和商业化方面不断创新,仍然保持着最成熟的风险投资行业和工业与世界顶尖大学之间紧密联系的传统。它引领着世界的研究与发展,位于新的网络、纳米、生物和能源技术的最前沿。
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真正的问题在于不平等和培养未来的劳动力方面。最大的问题与政治体制有关。政治对峙在美国创建的时候就被纳入了国家体制之中,但近年来在华盛顿越演越烈。即使这些问题并不比以往更糟糕,但这样的体制是否能够应付未来的问题才是关键所在。与此同时,联邦系统还为州和城市的多元化和创新潜力提供着保证。政府作用的减少意味着更多的美国创新将在政府和华盛顿以外发生。此外,尽管党派争吵在增加,但近年来从赤字到能源到医疗费用这些严重的问题却得到了改善而非恶化。美国有很多麻烦,它们也确实提出了许多问题,但它们没有造成绝对的衰落,更不能给我们一个明确的答案,以回答美国世纪将在何时结束。
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① “一无所知”党:严格来说不是一个政党,而是一个反对移民而秘密结社组织,因为秘密,所以参加者都以对此党一无所知来作答,因而得名。——译者注
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② 指约翰·肯尼迪。——译者注
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③ 主要是指页岩气革命,新能源页岩气,正在冲击传统能源体系。率先实现页岩气开采技术突破的美国,首先掀起了一场“页岩气革命”,不仅天然气产量飙升、煤炭面临被替代威胁,而且能源自给率不断提升,能源出口不断扩大。——译者注
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④ 罗伯特·D·帕特南(Robert D.Putnam):西方当代著名政治学家,博士毕业后任教于美国密歇根大学,1979年进入哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院任教至今,并在此期担任过院长,现在是哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院公共政策马尔林讲座教授。主要研究领域是政治学、国际政治和公共政策。以社会资本理论分析民主的变迁是帕特南教授的“金字招牌”。——译者注
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[1] Cullen Murphy,Are We Rome?The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America(New York
:Mariner Books,2007).
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[2] Paul Kennedy,The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
:Economic Change and Military Conflict Among the Great Powers from1500to2000(New York
:Random House,1987).
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[3] Of course,there were many more causes of this complex phenomenon.See Ramsay MacMullen,Corruption and the Decline of Rome(New Haven
:Yale University Press,1988).
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[4] See Nicholas Kristof,“We’re not No.1!We’re not No.1!“New York Times,April3,2014.
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[5] “The jobs machine,“The Economist,April13,2013.
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[6] Klaus Schwab and Xavier Sala-i-Martin,The Global Competitiveness Report2013-14(Davos
:World Economic Forum,2013).Niall Ferguson,“How America lost its way,“Wall Street Journal,June7,2013.
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[7] Technically Recoverable Shale Oil and Shale Gas Resources:An Assessment of137Shale Formations in41Countries Outside the United States(Washington,DC:US Energy Information Agency,2013),p.3.
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[8] 2014Global R&D Funding Forecast(Columbus
:Batelle Memorial Institute,2014).
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[9] US Patent Statistics Chart,Calendar Years1963-2013(Washington,DC
:The United States Patent and Trademark Office).
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[10] For a more optimistic view of American savings,see Richard N.Cooper,“Global imbalances
:Globalization,demography,and sustainability,“Journal of Economic Perspectives22,Summer2008,p.95.
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[11] Niall Ferguson,“An empire at risk,“Newsweek,December7,2009,p.28;and”A Greek crisis is coming to America,“Financial Times,February11,2010.See also,Francis Warnock,“How dangerous is US government debt?The risk of a sudden spike in US interest rates,“Council on Foreign Relations Report,June2010;available at
:http://www.cfr.org/publication/22408/how_dangerous_is_us_government_debt.html.
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[12] Institute of Higher Education of Shanghai Jiao Tong University,“Academic ranking of the world universities-2009”;available at
:http://www.arwu.org/ARWU2009.jsp.
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[13] “Are higher and lower performing students making gains?“The Nation’s Report Card(Washington,DC
:National Center for Education Statistics,US Department of Education,2013);available at
:http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_2013/#/gains-percentiles.
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[14] Viktória Kis and Simon Field,Time for the US to Reskill?What the Survey of Adult Skills Says(Washington,DC
:Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,2013),p.12.
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[15] Sam Dillon,“Many nations passing US in education,expert says,“New York Times,March10,2010.
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[16] “Gini in the bottle,“The Economist,November26,2013.
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