经济学人下载:政界中的巾帼英雄

In the past, widows or daughters inherited their position. Sonia Gandhi, president of India’s ruling Congress party, is the widow of Rajiv, a former prime minister and scion of the Gandhi dynasty founded by Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, which descended through his daughter, Indira. This set a pattern in South Asia. In Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumaratunga, president from 1994 to 2005, has the unusual distinction that not one but both parents served as prime minister. In Bangladesh the leaders of the main political parties, called the “battling Begums”, are each related—one, the widow, the other, a daughter—to the first two presidents of the country.

以前，遗孀或女儿继承她们丈夫或父亲的政治职位。印度国大党主席索尼娅??甘地是拉吉夫??甘地的妻子，拉吉夫是印度前总理同时也是甘地家族的子孙，甘地家族的创建者是印度开国总理贾瓦哈拉尔??尼赫鲁，随后其女英迪拉??甘地继任总理之位。这在南亚形成了一种模式，在斯里兰卡，于1994年至2005年间任总统的钱德里卡??班达拉奈克??库马拉通加，区别于他人的异常之处在于，不仅仅是她的父亲或母亲一人担任总理，而是父母两人均担任过总理。孟加拉国主要政党的领导人，被称作为“战斗的贵妇人”，都与开国两位总统有关——哈西娜是孟加拉国“国父”谢赫??穆吉布??拉赫曼的女儿；齐亚则是孟加拉国前军人总统齐亚??拉赫曼的妻子。

In South-East Asia, Aung San Suu Kyi owes her moral authority not only to her courage in standing up to the Burmese army, but also to her family: her father, Aung San, led Burma’s independence movement. When Indonesia was seeking a new start after the removal of its long serving dictator, Suharto, it turned to Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the man he overthrew. In the Philippines the past three presidents have been the widow of an opposition leader (Corazon Aquino), the daughter of a president (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) and Corazon’s son, Noynoy (none of his four sisters has gone into politics). And in case you think widows matter only in such rickety democracies as the Philippines and South Asia, consider that in America, eight senators and 38 Congresswomen have directly succeeded their husbands in their seats since 1921.

在东南亚，昂山素季的道德权威不但归功于坚决抵抗缅甸军队的勇气，还源自于她的家庭：她的父亲，领导缅甸进行独立运动的昂山。当印度尼西亚在经历苏哈托的长期独裁统治后，开始寻求新的开始时，众人将目光转向梅加瓦蒂??苏加诺，其父亲任总统时被苏哈托推翻。在菲律宾，上三届总统是反对党领导人的遗孀（科拉松??阿基诺）、前总统的女儿（格洛丽亚??马卡帕加尔??阿罗约）以及科拉松的儿子诺诺??阿基诺（他四个姐妹都未从政）。如果你认为遗孀问题只是存在于民主如此脆弱的国家，如菲律宾和南亚，那么再想想美国的情况，自1921年以来，共有8为参议员和38位众议院女议员直接继承她们丈夫在参议院和众议院的席位。

At the moment several new factors are combining to favour the distaff side more. In the West it is no longer exceptional for women such as Martine Aubry or Marine Le Pen to run for the highest office. In Asian countries it now seems easier for a dynasty’s founder to pass over talentless playboys in favour of more intelligent and perceptive daughters. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did this when choosing Benazir to run his Pakistan People’s Party, overlooking his son, Murtaza, who was also a member of parliament. Thaksin Shinawatra’s choice of his youngest sister, Yingluck, rather than any of his seven other siblings—one of whom is a party leader—was similarly vindicated by her performance on the stump.

此时，一些新的因素融合在一起，使得民众对女性政客更加偏爱。在西方，女性参加总统竞选已经不是例外了，诸如玛蒂娜??奥布里和玛琳??勒庞。在很多亚洲国家，建国立邦的领袖们似乎更倾向于将职位传给更加聪明知性的女儿们，而不再传给碌碌无为的花花公子们。佐勒菲卡尔??阿里??布托在为其创建的巴基斯坦人民党选择掌门人时，就是选择其女儿贝娜齐尔??布托，而并没有选择同样是国会议员的儿子穆尔塔扎??布托。他信??西那瓦选择他最小的妹妹英拉??西那瓦，而不是其他七个兄弟姐妹——其中一人是政党领导人——同样是由于英拉出色的游说演讲能力。