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A crisis of global capitalism has thrown up a crisis of global politics. Or perhaps it has been the other way round. In truth, the direction of causality scarcely matters. The important point is that only good politics has the capacity to clear up the mess left by bad economics.
全球資本主義危機催生了全球政治危機。又或者反言之，政治危機導致了經濟危機。事實上，哪個是因，哪個是果，一點都不重要。重要的是，只有好的政治制度才能清理壞經濟制度留下的爛攤子。
The future could look brighter. From Washington to Beijing, Berlin to Buenos Aires, everyone signs up to the fact of economic interdependence. But even as the synchronised slump has underlined the implications of this integration, it has turned politics inwards. Voters want shelter from the global storms. Talk of a new architecture for the international system does not quell the anger of the dispossessed and unemployed.
未來可能看上去比較光明。從美國到中國、從德國到阿根廷，每個國家都簽名同意了經濟相互依賴的事實。但正當同步發(fā)生的經濟蕭條凸顯出這種一體化的含義之際，政治也被卷了進來。選民們希望避開這場全球風暴。對構建新國際體系的討論無法平息失去房屋和工作的人的憤怒。
For two decades the prosperity that flowed from globalisation, albeit often unevenly distributed, seemed to assure its forward momentum. The world has fallen off the bicycle. The financial crash has exposed the failures and fragilities of globalisation. The unanswered question is whether governments can build a framework to restore its political legitimacy.
20年來，全球化帶來的經濟繁榮——盡管通常分配不均勻——似乎保證了其向前發(fā)展的勢頭。世界已經從這輛“自行車”上摔了下來。金融危機已經暴露出了全球化的失敗和脆弱。一個未得到解答的問題是，政府是否能夠建立一個框架來恢復政治合理性。
The present international system is a relic of a bygone era – of a time when the world was described by the competing ideologies of liberal democracy and communism, and when the institutions charged with what passed for global governance were the preserve of the rich nations of the west. The fall of the Berlin Wall was held to mark the triumph of this Washington consensus. The collapse of Lehman Brothers last autumn marked its demise.
當前的國際體系是過往時代的遺跡——一個被形容為自由民主和共產主義意識形態(tài)之爭的年代，一個負責制定全球治理規(guī)則的機構全都是西方富裕國家的領地的時代。柏林墻的倒下被認為是上述“華盛頓共識”(Washington consensus)勝利的標志。而雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)去年秋季的倒閉則標志著它的死亡。
Some hope the Group of 20 summit of world leaders in London early next month will provide a new answer. The G20, it is said, could turn the rising powers of the east and south into stakeholders in a refurbished global order. Gordon Brown, Britain's prime minister and the summit host, has promised governments will at last bring to bear the “global solutions” needed to resolve the economic crisis. After a period of apparent indifference, Barack Obama's new US administration has said it is prepared to show leadership.
一些人希望下月初在倫敦舉行的20國集團(G20)全球領導人峰會，會提供一個新的答案。據(jù)說，20國集團可能會將東方和南部的新興國家變成全球新秩序的利益相關者。英國首相戈登•布朗(Gordon Brown)將主持此次峰會。他已承諾，各國政府將最終利用應對此次經濟危機所需的“全球性解決方案”。在經歷了表面上漠不關心的一段時期后，巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)領導的美國新政府已表示，準備發(fā)揮其領導作用。
