丹麦人和比利时人共同分享欧洲广阔的自由民主贸易，

　　but they have different histories, different political structures, different religious traditions, different languages and food and architecture and literature-going back hundreds and hundreds of years.

　　但是他们却有着不同的历史，不同的政治体系，不同的宗教传统，以及不同的语言、食物、建筑和文学——这要回溯到几万年以前。

　　And the sum total of all those differences is that in certain kinds of situations that require dealing with risk and uncertainty,

　　以上所有的差异导致在特定的情况下，

　　Deans tend to react in a very different way from Belgians.

　　丹麦人面对风险与不确定性时的反应，与比利时人完全不同。

　　Of all of Hostede's Dimensions, though, perhaps the most interesting is what he called the "Power Distance Index."PDI.

　　在霍夫斯泰德的所有维度中，最有趣的一个就是被他称为“权利距离指数”的维度，简称PDI。

　　Power distance is concerned with attitudes towards hierarchy, specifically with how much a particular culture values and respects authority.

　　权利距离指数具体而言，就是一种特定文化中重视和尊重权威的程度。

　　To measure it, Hofstede asked questions like "How frequently in your experience does the following problem occur:

　　为了测量它，霍斯德曾经提出如下问答：

　　employees being afraid to express disagreement with their managers?"

　　在你的经历中，你遇到过多少次“雇员因害怕权威而不敢对管理人员表达不同意见”的事情？

　　In other words, to what extent do the "less powerful members of organizations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed unequally?"

　　究竟需要做哪些事情“才可以让组织和机构里相对没有太多权利的人接受并认同不平等的权利分配”？

　　How much are older people respected and feared? Are power holders entitled special privileges?

　　“那些资深的雇员受到怎样的尊重与敬畏”？“是否拥有权力就被授予了某些特权呢？”

　　"In low power-distance index countries," Hofstede wrote in his classic text Culture's Consequences:

　　霍夫斯泰德在他的经典著作《文化的重要地位》（Cucture`s Consequences）里指出，

　　power is something of which power holders are almost ashamed and they will try to underplay.

　　在低权利距离指数的国家里，权利会让拥有它的人感到尴尬，并且这些人始终都试图低调行事。

　　I once heard a Swedish (low PDI) university official state that in order to exercise power he tried no to look powerful.

　　我曾经听说过一位瑞典（低PDI国家）的大学官员说，为了有效地行使权力，他曾经试图让自己看起来没有任何官威。

　　Leaders may enhance their informal status by renouncing formal symbols.

　　领导们有时不得不放弃他们的官方的身份，而强调他们的自然身份。

　　In (low PDI) Austria, Prime Minister Bruno Kreisky was known to sometimes take a streetcar to work.

　　在澳大利亚（低PDI国家），众所周知，总理布鲁诺·克赖斯基有时会开着路面电车去上班。

　　in 1974, I actually saw the Dutch (low PDI) Prime Minister, Joop den Uyl, on vacation with his motor home at a camping site in Portugal.

　　在1974年，我曾亲眼看见，荷兰（低PDI国家）总理约普·登厄伊尔在葡萄牙度假期间，仅仅开着他的摩托房车停在一个露营地里休息。

　　Such behavior of the powerful will be very unlikely in high-PDI Belgium or France.

　　在高PDI国家，如比利时或者是法国，发生在有权阶层的事却大相径庭。

　　It's hard to imagine the Prime Ministry of either country in a streetcar or a motor home.

　　很难想象高PDI国家的总理会开路面电车或是摩托房车。