自然自由体系下的政府职能:亚当·斯密的政府论及其当代意义

Government Functions in the System of Natural Liberty:Adam Smith's Theory of Government and its Contemporary Significance

亚当·斯密不是"最小政府的首创者",也没有提出"一个强大的国家",它把市场用作政府的有效工具。斯密认为政府的意图在于保护每个社会成员的完全权利,保护法律正义。在此理论的基础上,斯密在对重商主义的批判中建立了一种自然自由体系。在这个体系下,政府只需要履行三项职能。政府为履行这三项职能需要一定的支出;但政府在涉及经济事务时存在渎职行为。人民和国家的富裕被斯密视为政治经济学的目标;为实现这个目标,政府应该采取各种手段保护和服务市场。政府、市场和国家应该协调一致,福利国家即是这种政府行为的结果之一。

Adam Smith was not the founder of 'minimum government' and he didn't propose 'a strong state' which uses the market as an effective instrument of government. Smith asserted that the intention of government was to protect the perfect rights of each social member and the law of justice. Based on these thoughts, Smith established a system of natural liberty in the criticism of mercantilism. In this system, government has only three functions to implement. In order to perform these three functions, government necessarily needs a certain expense, however, government has always been failing for its functions when deals with the economic matters. Smith considered the opulence of people and nation as the end of political economy. To attain that end, government should protect and serve market by all means. Government, market and the nation should coordinate each other. The welfare state is one of the effects of government actions.