The lady who changed the world 改变世界的女人 撒切尔夫人

Margaret Thatcher
玛格丽特·撒切尔

The lady who changed the world
改变世界的女人

Apr 8th 2013, 12:35 by Economist.com



ONLY a handful of peace-time politicians can claim to have changed the world. Margaret Thatcher, who died this morning, was one. She transformed not just her own Conservative Party, but the whole of British politics. Her enthusiasm for privatisation launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never created an “ism”.

和平时期以改变世界为己任的政治家为数寥寥。今天早上去世的玛格丽特·撒切尔就是这样一个人。她不仅改造了保守党，也改变了整个英国政坛。她对私有化的热情引发了全球革命，她对抗暴政的意志加速了苏联灭亡。温斯顿·丘吉尔取得了战争的胜利，但他从来没有创造一个“主义”。

The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—odd, since as a prim control freak, she was in some ways the embodiment of conservatism. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Her struggles had a theme: the right of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from the micromanagement of the state.

撒切尔主义的本质是反抗现状，争取自由——这很奇怪，她是一个拘谨并且有强烈控制欲的人，体现了保守主义的某些特征。她认为只有个人获得自由，国家才能强盛。让个人能够掌控自己的生活，国家的微观管理尽量提供自由，这是她为之奋斗的主题。

In Britain her battles with the left—especially the miners—gave her a reputation as a blue-rinse Boadicea. But she was just as willing to clobber her own side, sidelining old-fashioned Tory “wets” and unleashing her creed on conservative strongholds, notably the “big bang” in the City of London. Many of her pithiest putdowns were directed towards her own side: “U turn if you want to”, she told the Conservatives as unemployment passed 2m, “The lady’s not for turning.”

在英国她与左派——特别是矿工——斗争，这让她得到了“蓝发博阿迪西亚”的绰号。但是，她乐于抨击自己所在一方，她还把保守党内的“温和派”晾在一边，并且向保守派大本营灌输她的保守观点，尤其是有关伦敦金融城“大爆炸”的看法。许多最简练的抨击是针对她自己阵营中的人，当失业率超过200万时她对保守党说：“要转舵你就转吧，但是女士不会转。”

Paradoxes abound. Mrs Thatcher was a true Blue Tory who marginalised the Tory Party for a generation. The Tories ceased to be a national party, retreating to the south and the suburbs and all but dying off in Scotland, Wales and the northern cities. Tony Blair profited more from the Thatcher revolution than John Major, her successor: with the trade unions emasculated and the left discredited, he was able to remodel his party and sell it triumphantly to Middle England. His huge majority in 1997 ushered in 13 years of New Labour rule.

悖论无处不在。作为真正的保守党人，她使保守党在一代人的时间里游离于主流社会之外。保守党不再是一个全国性的政党，它的势力范围已经退缩到英国南部和城市郊区，同时还差点失去苏格兰、威尔士和北部城镇地区。托尼·布莱尔从撒切尔革命获得的收益比约翰·梅杰（撒切尔的继任者）要多。工会势力遭到削弱，左派失去信任，他得以重塑自己的政党，并在英格兰中部将它成功出售。1997年，他在议会赢得多数，迎来13年的工党统治。

Yet her achievements cannot be gainsaid. She reversed what her mentor, Keith Joseph, liked to call “the ratchet effect”, whereby the state was rewarded for its failures with yet more power. With the brief exception of the emergency measures taken in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08, there have been no moves to renationalise industries or to resume a policy of picking winners. Thanks to her, the centre of gravity of British politics moved dramatically to the right. The New Labourites of the 1990s concluded that they could rescue the Labour Party from ruin only by adopting the central tenets of Thatcherism. “The presumption should be that economic activity is best left to the private sector,” declared Mr Blair. Neither he nor his successors would dream of reverting to the days of nationalisation and unfettered union power.

然而她取得了不可磨灭的成就。她走到了恩师基斯•约瑟夫的对立面，她喜欢把自己的政策称之为“棘轮效应”，即国家的权利太多，就要面临失败。除了在2007年-2008年的金融危机爆发之后，政府曾短暂地采取了一些紧急措施之外，国家对工业企业再也没有实行过收归国有的政策，同时也没有再次实行过挑选赢家的政策。多亏了撒切尔，英国政治的重心急剧右移。20世纪90年代的新工党曾总结说，他们只有采纳撒切尔主义的核心理念才能将工党从废墟中拯救出来。托尼•布莱尔也曾这样说道：“我们认为，经济活动最好留给私营部门。”无论是托尼•布莱尔还是他的继任者，都不再梦想着回到国有化和不受束缚的工会权力的时代。

On the world stage, too, Mrs Thatcher continues to cast a long shadow. Her combination of ideological certainty and global prominence ensured that Britain played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union that was disproportionate to its weight in the world. Mrs Thatcher was the first British politician since Winston Churchill to be taken seriously by the leaders of all the major powers. She was a heroine to opposition politicians in eastern Europe. Her willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with “dear Ronnie” to block Soviet expansionism helped to promote new thinking in the Kremlin. But her insistence that Mikhail Gorbachev was a man with whom the West could do business also helped to end the cold war.

撒切尔夫人也在世界舞台上投下了漫长的身影。她坚定的意识形态举世瞩目的声望使英国对苏联瓦解起到了和它在世界所占分量不相符的作用。撒切尔夫人是自温斯顿·丘吉尔以来，第一位让所有大国领导人仔细掂量的英国政治家。她是东欧反对派政治家的英雄。她愿意和“亲爱的罗尼（里根总统）”齐心协力阻止苏联扩张，催生了克里姆林宫的新思维。但是她强调米哈伊尔•戈尔巴乔夫能和西方打交道，也有助于结束冷战。

The post-communist countries embraced her revolution heartily: by 1996 Russia had privatised some 18,000 industrial enterprises. India dismantled the licence Raj—a legacy of British Fabianism—and unleashed a cavalcade of successful companies. Across Latin America governments embraced market liberalisation. Whether they managed well or badly, all of them looked to the British example.

后共产主义国家热诚地接受了她的革命热：截止1996年俄罗斯对大约一万八千个工业企业实施了私有化。印度取消了英国费边主义的遗产——“牌照制度”，很多成功的公司脱颖而出。拉美政府实行市场自由化。不管他们做的好坏，都是比照着英国干的。

But today, the pendulum is swinging dangerously away from the principles Mrs Thatcher espoused. In most of the rich world, the state’s share of the economy has grown sharply in recent years. Regulations—excessive, as well as necessary—are tying up the private sector. Businessmen are under scrutiny as they have not been for 30 years. Demonstrators protest against the very existence of the banking industry. And with the rise of China, state control, not economic liberalism, is being hailed as a model for emerging countries.

然而今天的局势正在危险地背离了撒切尔夫人的信奉的法则。最近几年大部分发达国家经济的国有成分迅速增长。过分或者必要的管理——束缚着私营部门。商人遭受着30年以来从未有过的审查。示威者抗议当前的银行业，就中国崛起来说，国家控制，而非经济自由主义被当成新兴国家的典范。

For a world in desperate need of growth, this is the wrong direction to head in. Europe will never thrive until it frees up its markets. America will throttle its recovery unless it avoids over-regulation. China will not sustain its success unless it starts to liberalise. This is a crucial time to hang on to Margaret Thatcher’s central perception—that for countries to flourish, people need to push back against the advance of the state. What the world needs now is more Thatcherism, not less.

对于急需发展的世界来说，这不是正确的前进方向。不放开市场，欧洲永远也不会繁荣；不减少不必要的监管，美国很难复苏；不实行经济自由化，中国的成功不会持久。现在到了贯彻落实玛格丽特·撒切尔中心观念的关键时刻——对于蓬勃发展的国家，人民需要对抗国家势力的增长。世界要更广泛地推行撒切尔主义，而不是摒弃它。



Margaret Thatcher prepares for victory in the 1983 general election
玛格丽特·撒切尔为1983年的选举胜利做准备。


As Margaret Roberts, a grocer's daughter, she checks the price and quality of goods in 1950s Dartford, where she is standing for election
上世纪五十年代杂货商的女儿玛格利特· 罗伯茨在达特福德检查商品的货物和质量，她在那里参选。


A jubilant wave as Mrs Thatcher, shown with husband Denis and son Mark, wins the 1979 general election for the Conservatives
撒切尔夫人高兴地挥手，她和丈夫丹尼斯和儿子马克在一起，她为保守党赢得了1979年的大选。


Protests in Liverpool as unemployment rises to 2.16m in 1981 and Mrs Thatcher's popularity plummets
1981年失业人数达到二百一十六万，利物浦发生了抗议活动，撒切尔夫人的人气大幅下跌


Inside 10 Downing Street, Mrs Thatcher worked long hours
唐宁街10号内部，撒切尔夫人工作了很长时间


A shared purpose: with American president Ronald Reagan in 1984 during the Cold War
共同目标：冷战期间和美国总统罗纳德·里根在一起（1984年）


Antipathy towards integration during a European Economic Community summit in 1984
厌恶一体化，摄于1984年欧洲经济共同体峰会


The lady is not for turning: on a visit to British troops in Germany, four years after the Falklands War
不会改变的女人：马岛战争四年之后，检阅驻德国的英国军队


Mrs Thatcher wins a record third successive term in office as a result of the 1987 election victory
1987年选举获胜，撒切尔夫人赢得三连任记录


Lampooned by puppet makers in the television series "Spitting Image"
木偶制作人在电视上搞的刺系列“一模一样”


The thawing of relations with the Soviet Union: with Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990
和苏联的关系解冻，1990年和米哈伊尔•戈尔巴乔夫在一起


As Baroness Thatcher at the state opening of Parliament in 2010
2010年女男爵撒切尔出席 国会开幕大典