1996 / March

政治市場理論與政治過程的商品化
Theories of Political Market and the Commodification of the Political Process

研究論文 Research Article

李培元
Pei-yuan Li

149-188

資本主義式民主政治在二十世紀後期，已然成為一種明確的世界觀，即「政治市場」。本文從資本主義三個發展階段（即完全競爭、壟斷、國家干預），及其代表性的經濟模式，來説明三種政治市場的結構特質與運作方式。並藉此探究其內在關係所衍生的政治商品化效應。由政治市場觀念所鋪就的民主理論，儘管理解內容各執一詞，卻存在著一項共通性，即市場本身所蘊含的選擇與均衡。政治市場的選擇意義，就是公民參與；而均衡意義則是形式公益。這項由類比理解所建構的民主政治基礎價值，在政治行銷與政商關係的相互作用下，逐漸被商品交換的意義所取代。政治過程的商品化，即表現在政治交換體系（即選舉）的商品意識塑造，以及，政治生產體系（即決策）的資本累積流程。本文認為，資本主義式民主政治的實然處境，已逐漸顯露出政治商品化的趨勢。這種世界觀，不僅是一種新的政治交換關係的理解圖像，更且是國家機器在執行其社會生產角色時，透過政治過程所催化的必然結果。

Toward the end of the twentieth century, capitalistic democracy has become a distinct "Weltanschauung," that is "political market." In this article, we will look at the structural elements and operational methods of three types of political markets, and then examine the effects during the process of political commodification which were developed by its inner relationship. We'll start by illustrating three stages of the development of capitalism (prefect competition, monopoly, and under state intervention), and then we'll move through the economic models that represent these three stages. The democratic theory based on the concept of political market has a generality even though it may be given different interpretations.    The consensus is that the market implies choice and equilibrium in itself. Choice in the political market means citizen participation; equilibrium stands for formalized public interest. The basic value of democracy, founded by analogous understanding, was gradually replaced by the reality of commodity exchange in the interaction of political marketing and politics-business ties. Commodification of the political process can be seen from the commercialization of the political resources exchange system (election) and the formation of capital accumulation of the political production system (policy). In this article, we take the view that capitalistic democracy has inevitably moved toward political commodification. Such a "Weltanschauung" not only provides a new map to represent a new understanding of the exchange relationship in politics, it is also within itself an inescapable result of the political process within which the state machine performs its social roles in modem society.

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