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Denmark and Belgium may share in a kind of broad European liber-democratic tradition,
丹麥人和比利時人共同分享歐洲廣闊的自由民主貿易，
but they have different histories, different political structures, different religious traditions, different languages and food and architecture and literature-going back hundreds and hundreds of years.
但是他們卻有著不同的歷史，不同的政治體系，不同的宗教傳統，以及不同的語言、食物、建筑和文學——這要回溯到幾萬年以前。
And the sum total of all those differences is that in certain kinds of situations that require dealing with risk and uncertainty,
以上所有的差異導致在特定的情況下，
Deans tend to react in a very different way from Belgians.
丹麥人面對風險與不確定性時的反應，與比利時人完全不同。
Of all of Hostede's Dimensions, though, perhaps the most interesting is what he called the "Power Distance Index."PDI.
在霍夫斯泰德的所有維度中，最有趣的一個就是被他稱為“權利距離指數”的維度，簡稱PDI。
Power distance is concerned with attitudes towards hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority.
權利距離指數具體而言，就是一種特定文化中重視和尊重權威的程度。
To measure it, Hofstede asked questions like "How frequently in your experience does the following problem occur:
為了測量它，霍斯德曾經提出如下問答：
employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers?"
在你的經歷中，你遇到過多少次“雇員因害怕權威而不敢對管理人員表達不同意見”的事情？
In other words, to what extent do the "less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally?"
究竟需要做哪些事情“才可以讓組織和機構里相對沒有太多權利的人接受并認同不平等的權利分配”？
How much are older people respected and feared? Are power holders entitled special privileges?
“那些資深的雇員受到怎樣的尊重與敬畏”？“是否擁有權力就被授予了某些特權呢？”
"In low power-distance index countries," Hofstede wrote in his classic text Culture's Consequences:
霍夫斯泰德在他的經典著作《文化的重要地位》（Cucture`s Consequences）里指出，
power is something of which power holders are almost ashamed and they will try to underplay.
在低權利距離指數的國家里，權利會讓擁有它的人感到尷尬，并且這些人始終都試圖低調行事。
I once heard a Swedish (low PDI) university official state that in order to exercise power he tried no to look powerful.
我曾經聽說過一位瑞典（低PDI國家）的大學官員說，為了有效地行使權力，他曾經試圖讓自己看起來沒有任何官威。
Leaders may enhance their informal status by renouncing formal symbols.
領導們有時不得不放棄他們的官方的身份，而強調他們的自然身份。
In (low PDI) Austria, Prime Minister Bruno Kreisky was known to sometimes take a streetcar to work.
在澳大利亞（低PDI國家），眾所周知，總理布魯諾·克賴斯基有時會開著路面電車去上班。
in 1974, I actually saw the Dutch (low PDI) Prime Minister, Joop den Uyl, on vacation with his motor home at a camping site in Portugal.
在1974年，我曾親眼看見，荷蘭（低PDI國家）總理約普·登厄伊爾在葡萄牙度假期間，僅僅開著他的摩托房車停在一個露營地里休息。
Such behavior of the powerful will be very unlikely in high-PDI Belgium or France.
在高PDI國家，如比利時或者是法國，發生在有權階層的事卻大相徑庭。
It's hard to imagine the Prime Ministry of either country in a streetcar or a motor home.
很難想象高PDI國家的總理會開路面電車或是摩托房車。
