2015考研英语阅读向东方学习做官吧

　　Go East, young bureaucrat向东方学习做官吧!

　　Emerging Asia can teach the West a lot aboutgovernment

　　新兴的亚州可以教给西方很多关于政府管理的道理

　　WHEN people talk about Singapores educationmiracle, they normally think of rows of clever youngmathematicians. The hair-design and beauty-therapy training centres at the Institute of TechnicalEducation are rather different. The walls arecovered with pouting models, LOral adverts andtelevision screens. There is a fully fitted-out spa and a hairdressing salon. It all seems rathermore Sex and the City than Asian values, though the manicurists, pedicurists, cosmetologistsand hairdressers toil diligently.

　　谈起新加坡非凡的教育时，浮现在人们脑海里的是成堆聪明年轻的数学家。而工艺教育学院的发型设计和美容理疗培训中心却与所想大相径庭。中心的墙上到处是嘟着嘴的模特、欧莱雅的广告和电视。中心还有一个装备齐全的SPA馆和美发沙龙。整个的风格看似更像《欲望都市》里的场景，与亚洲品味格格不入，尽管里面的美甲师、足疗师、美容师、理发师可是在勤勤恳恳、辛辛苦苦地干活。

　　Asked whether he wants to go to university, the holy grail of most Asian families, a youngbarber called Noel replies that he would rather open a hairdressing salon. Mei Lien wants to setup her own beauty salon; Shuner would like to work in hotels abroad.

　　当问及是否想上大学进入许多亚洲家庭心中的神圣殿堂，年轻的理发师Noel回答说他宁愿去开家美发沙龙。Mei Lien则说希望开家自己的美容院。而Shuner则想去国外的宾馆工作。

　　Until recently ITEdubbed Its The End by ambitious middle-class parentswas the dark sideof Singaporean education. The city state streams pupils rigorously and is unashamedly elitist:one school claims to send more students to Ivy League universities than any other secondaryschool in the world. But such a system also produces losersand many of the bottom thirdwho do not make it to university come to ITE.

　　在不久之前，工艺教育学院的缩写ITE还被望子成龙的中产阶级家长嘲讽为是It s The End的缩写，被视为新加坡教育不光彩的一面。这个城邦国家严格地将学生三六九等分，毫不掩饰其对精英的崇拜：有一所学校号称比世界上其他任意一所中学向常青籘联盟高校输送的学生都多。但是这样一个体制也会生产出失败者很多排名倒数几名不能上大学的就去了工艺教育学院。

　　Since the 1990s the government has worked hard to change ITEs image. It has not only spenta lot of money on new facilities and better teachers but also put a great deal of thought into it,scouring the West for best practice in vocational training. And it has encouraged students whoare used to failure to take pride in their work. That has involved discipline but also fun outside the classroom: ITE has sports teams andconcerts just like any university.

　　从上世纪九十年代起，新加坡政府努力改善工艺教育学院的形象。不仅花费大量金钱提升设施、聘请良师，还花费了许多心思，遍访西方国家寻找职业培训的最佳方式。政府鼓励原来那些对失败已习以为常的学生挺起胸脯投入工作。这不仅包含了纪律，还有课外的欢乐：工艺教育学院有运动队、开音乐会，和其他任何一所大学无差。

　　This attention to detail has paid off. Many of thegraduates have to compete with cheap migrantworkers, especially in service jobs, but most of themare snapped up quickly. The hairdressers and beautytherapists are off to the new casinos, or integratedresorts, as they are prudishly known. Singapore,already near the top of most educational leaguetables, has created yet another centre of excellencethat is beginning to attract foreign visitors.

　　这种细致严谨的态度已收成效。很多毕业生需要与廉价的移民劳动力竞争，特别是在服务业这一行。但他们中的绝大部分一毕业就被抢聘一空。理发师和美容师去了新开张的赌场，或者是综合性的度假胜地，这样一个含蓄的名称。新加坡，在绝大多数教育排名已名列前茅，又创造了新的不菲成就，也开始吸引外国人来参观。

　　Singapore is important to any study of government just now, both in the West and in Asia.That is partly because it does some things very well, in much the same way that someScandinavian countries excel in certain fields. But it is also because there is an emergingtheory about a superior Asian model of government, put forward by both despairing Westernbusinesspeople and hubristic Asian chroniclers. Simplified somewhat, it comes in four parts.

　　无论是东方还是西方，新加坡对于想研究政府管理的来说都十分重要。部分原因是它在某些事情上做得非常好，同在某些领域领先的北欧国家方法差不多。但还有原因就是现在出现了一个由绝望中的西方商界人士和高傲的亚洲历史学家共同提出的理论，认为亚洲政府管理模式较为优越。简而言之，此理论分为四部分。

　　First, Singapore is good at government . Second, the secret of its successlies in an Asian mixture of authoritarian values and state-directed capitalism .Third, China is trying to copy Singapore . Last, Chinas government is alreadymore efficient than the decadent West .

　　第一、新加坡擅长政府管理。第二、成功的秘密在于一种将权力主义的价值观同国家主导的资本主义相融合的亚洲模式。第三、中国正在努力模仿新加坡模式。第四、中国政府的效率已经超过堕落的西方国家了

　　Fact or fiction?真相还是小说?

　　For all the insults hurled at Disneyland with the death penalty ,Singapore provides better schools and hospitals and safer streets than most Western countriesand all with a state that consumes only 19% of GDP. Yes, that proportion is understatedbecause it does not include the other fingers the government has in the economic pie, such asits huge landholdings, the Central Provident Fund andTemasek . Yes, it is easier to serve 5m people on atiny island than 309m Americans on a vast landmass. Yes, it has relied on immigration, which isnow creating strains . And yes, Singaporesbureaucrats can make mistakes, such as letting an Islamic terrorist escape in 2008. But itsgovernment does pretty well.

　　对于向这座有着死刑的迪士尼公园泼的所有脏水，新加坡展现的是比大多数西方国家更加优秀的学校和医院，更为安全的街道，而且这一切都只消耗了国内生产总值的19%。是的，这一比例是有少报，因为它没有包括政府在整个经济蛋糕里染指的其他部分，比如说其庞大的地产、中央公积金和淡马锡。是的，相比于为一片广袤大陆上的3亿9百万美国人服务，让5百万的小岛居民满意是较容易的。是的，新加坡依赖于移民，但移民现也造成了压力。是的，新加坡的官员们也是会犯错的，比如在2008让一名伊斯兰恐怖分子逃脱。但是其政府还是运转得十分不错。

　　The Chinese are fascinated by it. There is good social order in Singapore, Deng Xiaopingobserved in 1992. We should draw from their experience, and do even better than them. Itsends streams of bureaucrats to visit Singapore. One of the first things that Xi Jinping did afterbeing anointed in 2010 as Chinas next leader was to drop in on Lee Kuan Yew,Singapores minister-mentor, who ran the island from 1959 to 1990, and his son, Lee HsienLoong, who has been prime minister since 2004. The Chinese are looking at other places, toomost obviously Hong Kong, another small-government haven. But it is hard to think of anyrich-country leader whom China treats with as much respect as the older Mr Lee.

　　中国人十分着迷于新加坡政府。新加坡的社会秩序算是好的，邓小平曾在1992年这样评论。我们应当借鉴他们的经验，而且比他们管得更好。中国派了一批批的官员去新加坡学习。在习近平2010年被选定为中国的下一位领导人后，他做的头几件事中有一件就是拜访了李光耀，新加坡1959至1990年总理，现内阁资政，和他的儿子李显龙，新加坡自2004年起的第三任总理。中国人也羡慕其他一些地方最明显的就是香港，另一个港口小政府。但很难相信有另外任何一个富国领导人受到了中国之于李光耀般的尊敬。

　　So what lessons are the Chinese learning? There isan odd imbalance between the things thatSingapore and others make so much noise aboutand the reasons why the place works. In particular,the Asian values bits of Singaporeitsauthoritarianism and its industrial policythat theChinese seem to find especially congenial are lessvital to its success than two more humdrumvirtues: a good civil service and a competitively smallstate.

　　那么，中国人是在学什么呢?在新加坡和其他国家高声抱怨的事情同新加坡运转良好的原因之间有着奇怪的不平衡。特别是，新加坡的亚洲价值观部分它的权力主义和产业政策中国似乎认为尤为调和的部分，对于其成功并不及其余两平淡无奇的长处重要：良好的行政机构，规模小得有竞争力的国家。

　　The island that Lee built李氏岛

　　Singapore is certainly a fairly stern place. It has been run by the Peoples Action Party for half acentury. The older Mr Lee, a Cambridge-educated lawyer who was originally seen as a bit of aleft-winger, set up a parliamentary system in which it has proved curiously difficult for theopposition to do well. From 1966 to 1981 Mr Lees PAP won all the seats. It has opened up abit, and in the most recent election in 2006 it won only 66% of the votes and 82 of the 84seats. The media, and particularly the internet, have also got a little freer.

　　新加坡当然是个法治相当严厉的国家。已经由人民行动党执政半个世纪了。老李，作为一名剑桥毕业的律师，原本被认为有点左倾，建立的议会体系使得反对派办事异常艰难。自 1966年至1981年，李光耀领导的人民行动党一直赢得国会所有席位。现已开放了一点，在最近的2006年大选里，它只赢得了选票的66%和国会议席 84个中的82个。媒体，特别是互联网，也自由了一些。

　　The Singaporeans argue that they have the perfect compromise between accountability andefficiency. Their politicians are regularly tested in elections and have to make themselvesavailable to their constituents; but since the government knows it is likely to win, it can take along view. Fixing things like ITE takes time. Our strength is that we are able to thinkstrategically and look ahead, says the prime minister. If the government changed every fiveyears it would be harder.

　　新加坡人称他们在责任与效率之间达成了最好的折衷。政客定期受到选举的检验，对选民来说必须随叫随到;但因为政府已经知道自己很可能连任，它的目光也看得长远了。调整一些东西，像工艺教育学院，就需要时间。 我们的长处就是我们能够从战略角度思考，从长远角度出发，总理这样说道。如果一个政府每五年就换一次，这可就不容易了。

　　There is more truth in this than Western liberals would like to admit. Not many people inWashington are thinking beyond the 2012 presidential election. It is sometimes argued that anAmerican administration operates strategically for only around six months, at the beginning ofits second yearafter it has got its staff confirmed by the Senate and before the mid-termscampaign begins.

　　这其中蕴含的真理比西方自由主义者承认的更多。在华盛顿，没有什么人想的能超过2012的总统大选。人们有时说一届美国政府只战略性地运行了大概6个月，从它的第二年算起自其成员受到参议院的批准后再到中期选举宣传开始。

　　Yet even assuming that voters are happy to swap a little more efficiency for less democracy,Singapore still seems a difficult model to follow. Not only is it manageably small, but balancingauthoritarianism and accountability comes down largely to personal skills . More generally,Singapores success as a planning state has a lot to do with the sort of people who run it.

　　即使假设选民愿意用少一点民主换来效率高一点，新加坡仍然是一个十分难模仿的对象。它不仅小得好统治，平衡权力主义和责任大部分是靠个人技巧。再大体上说来，新加坡作为一个有规划的国家的成功是与统治管理者们有很大的关系。