The Unique Invention of the American President
美国总统职位的独特创造
Today we are not going to talk about any one president. We will instead talk about the presidency itself — what some people call “the office of the presidency.”
今天我们不会谈论任何一位总统,而是要探讨总统职位本身——也就是所谓的“总统职位”。
That does not mean the room where the leader of the United States works. Here, it means the position and powers of the U.S. president.
这里的“职位”并不意味着美国领导人的办公室。它指的是美国总统的地位和权力。
Sidney Milkis is part of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He and others at the Miller Center are specialists on U.S. political history.
西德尼·米尔基斯是弗吉尼亚大学米勒公共事务中心的一员。他和米勒中心的其他成员都是美国政治史方面的专家。
Milkis says that, when it was created in the late 1700s, the U.S. presidency was unlike any other position in world history.
米尔基斯说,18世纪末创立时,美国总统职位与世界历史上任何其他职位都不同。
“For thousands of years before the American Constitution people thought a strong executive power and a democracy – what Jefferson called self-government – were incompatible. Because how could a sovereign people delegate tremendous responsibility to one individual and still consider themself a democracy, even a representative democracy?”
“在美国宪法诞生的几千年前,人们就认为强有力的行政权力与民主——杰斐逊所说的自治——是格格不入的。因为一个主权在民的国家怎么可能把巨大的权力授予一个个人,却还自称是民主,哪怕是代议民主?”
In other words, the idea of giving a lot of power to one person made sense – if the country were a monarchy and ruled by a king or queen.
换句话说,如果一个国家是君主制,由国王或女王统治,给一个人很大的权力就说得通。
And giving a lot of power to an elected group in a legislature made sense – if the country were a democracy, and voters elected representatives.
如果一个国家是民主制,民众选举代表议员,给一个选举产生的立法机构很大权力也说得通。
But giving a lot of power to one person in a democracy did not seem to make sense.
但在民主制国家里给一个人巨大权力似乎说不通。
The writers of the Constitution understood this situation. They were concerned about giving one person too much power. Remember, the country’s founders had just fought a war for independence against the British. The American colonists had not liked being under the control of a British king.
宪法编写者理解这种状况。他们担心给一个人过多权力。记住,美国开国者刚刚与英国打了一场独立战争。当时的殖民地人不喜欢受英王控制。
They also worried that a strong executive could become a tyrant or corrupt, adds curator Harry Rubenstein. He is a curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
史密森尼学会国家美国历史博物馆的馆长哈里·鲁本斯坦补充说,他们也担心一个强有力的行政官员可能成为暴君或腐败。
But the Constitution’s writers had also seen the problems of a weak executive branch. Asking state legislatures to make national decisions took too long, and sometimes the problems were never resolved at all.
但是宪法编写者也看到了行政权力薄弱的问题。让州议会做全国决定需要太长时间,有时问题也得不到解决。
Historian Sidney Milkis says that, as a result of these ideas — some of them conflicting — the writers of the Constitution argued about what the office of the president should be.
历史学家西德尼·米尔基斯说,由于这些观点存在冲突,宪法的编写者对总统职位应该是什么样进行了激烈辩论。
“There were people like James Madison and [Thomas] Jefferson, who thought the president’s power should be limited, and the term ‘president’ meant ‘preside.’ And Congress and the states should be the leading venues of American democracy.”
“像詹姆斯·麦迪逊和杰斐逊这样的人,认为总统权力应该受限制,‘总统’这一称呼意味着‘主持’。国会和各州应该是美国民主的主要场所。”
Other people who helped write the U.S. Constitution, such as Alexander Hamilton, thought the president should be what Milkis calls “the anchor of American democracy.” Hamilton thought the president should have enough power to direct large projects for the public good.
而帮助起草宪法的亚历山大·汉密尔顿等人,则认为总统应该是“美国民主的锚”。汉密尔顿认为总统应该有足够权力来领导公共利益的大项目。
So what happened?
那么结果如何呢?
Well, in 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention found a unique solution. First, they agreed to make the president a one-person job. One person, they reasoned, could both make decisions more effectively than a group, and be more easily held responsible for them.
嗯,1787年,宪法制宪会议的代表找到了一个独特的解决方案。首先,他们同意设立一个单一的总统职位。他们认为,一个人相比团体能更有效做出决策,也更容易为决策负责。
But they decided not to give the president too much power. The person would be elected for one four-year term at a time. And the president would share power with a national legislature and a supreme court.
但他们决定不给总统过多权力。总统每次只能当选4年一个任期。并且总统要与国会和最高法院分享权力。
The delegates also decided some of the details about how the president would be elected, and how to remove the person from office. And they said the president would have a number of duties. They include being the commander in chief of the military, nominating public officials, and giving Congress a report on the state of the Union. This list is comes from Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
代表们还决定了一些关于总统如何选举以及如何罢免的细节。并说总统会有许多职责,包括作为三军统帅、提名公职人员以及向国会报告国情咨文。这些内容都在美国宪法第二条中。
But a lot of the job description was left open. It said the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
但关于工作描述留有很大空间,只说总统“应谨慎忠实地执行法律”。
Since it was written in 1787, that expression has informed discussions about what powers the U.S. president should really have.
自1787年书写以来,这句话就引发了关于美国总统真正应该拥有多大权力的讨论。
Historian Sidney Milkis says Americans are still debating how much power the president should have. For most of the 19th century, he says, the powers of the president were more limited. But since the 20th century, the position has become more powerful. The president has moved closer to the center of American democracy.
历史学家西德尼·米尔基斯说,美国人仍在讨论总统应该有多大权力。他说,在19世纪大部分时间里,总统权力比较有限。但到20世纪,这个职位变得更加强大,总统日益走向美国民主的核心。
But in time, Milkis says, Americans may decide to limit the president’s authority again, and give more power to Congress and state governments.
但米尔基斯说,美国人可能会决定再次限制总统权力,把更多权力交给国会和州政府。
Milkis adds one more thing about the unusual invention of the U.S. president. It was unclear that the public would trust a national executive. But as our America’s Presidents series shows, for the most part, Americans respect the office of the president. Instead of fearing our great leaders, says Milkis, we honor them.
米尔基斯还补充说,关于美国总统这一不同寻常的创造,起初公众是否会信任一个全国行政首脑并不明确。但是从我们的《美国总统系列》可以看出,美国人大体上尊重总统这一职位。米尔基斯说,我们不是惧怕自己的伟大领导人,而是尊崇他们。
