走向“预算国家”--财政转型与国家建设

Toward a Budget State:Fiscal Transformation and State Building

在国家建设过程中,重构财政制度至关重要,财政转型可以在很大程度上引导国家治理制度转型。在西方国家建设历史上,出现过两次重要的财政转型——从"领地国家"到"税收国家"再到"预算国家"。预算国家是采用现代预算制度来组织和管理财政收支的国家,它具有两个基本特征:财政集中和预算监督。随着这些国家成功地向预算国家转型,它们的国家治理也变得更加高效而且负责。1978年经济体制改革以来,中国逐步从"自产国家"向"税收国家"转型。随着1999年启动预算改革,中国开始迈向"预算国家"。不过,在建立预算国家的道路上,中国仍然面临很多挑战,不仅预算监督亟待加强,集中统一也需要继续完善。

To a large extent, a change of the state’s fiscal regime would help to reshape governing institutions of it. Therefore, it is critical to restructure the fiscal regime in the enterprise of state-building. The history of western state-building had experienced two significant fiscal transformations, i.e., from 'domain-state' to 'tax-state' and then to 'budget-state'. A budget state is one governing the extraction and deployment of financial sources according to modern budgeting institution. It holds two basic characteristics such as fiscal centralization and budgetary supervision by the legislature. With the establishment of budget state, the governing of these states had become more efficient and accountable. China, since the 1978 economic reform, has been gradually transformed from an 'owner-state' to a 'tax-state'. With the initiation of the budget reform since 1999, China has been moving toward a 'budget state'. However, for China to be a budget-state, there are many challenges ahead. While budgetary supervision must be taken into a serious consideration, fiscal centralization needs to be further strengthened.