对税收本质的重新思考——基于制度视角的分析

A Re-consideration of the Essence of Taxation: Based on an Institutional View

经过长期的理论争鸣,目前我国财政理论界对市场经济与公共财政间的内在联系已基本取得共识,实践中也早已确立构建适应我国市场经济发展的公共财政改革目标,但在公共财政及其公共性内涵的理解上尚存分歧。囿于西方主流经济学资源配置的视角,主流观点是从为市场提供公共产品、弥补市场失效的角度来定位公共财政。但从制度视角来看,市场交易不是表面上的资源配置而是其背后的权利配置,排他性产权的界定和保护是市场交易的前提与基础,而国家则在其中起着不可或缺的重要作用。理论逻辑与历史逻辑都表明,政府既可能有效地保护产权,也可能出于短期财政需要而随意侵犯产权,而只有产权通过立宪层面对政府权力施以硬性约束时才能予以有效克服。因此,基于产权与税收间的内在联系,树立新型税收本质观有利于在制度层面明确我国公共财政的立宪实质。

Through a long period of theoretical contention, the current theories of China＇s financial sector have generally reached a consensus on the internal relation of the market economy and the public finance, and in practice a public finance reform goal suitable to the development of the country＇s market economy has already set up, but there still exist some differences in the understanding of the meaning of public finance and its public connotation. Due to restrictions of the resource allocation perspective of the mainstream western economics, the mainstream opinion is that the public finance is defined as providing the market with public products and making up for market failures. From the perspective of the system, the market dealings are actually the underlying power configuration rather than the superficial resource allocation. The definition and protection of the exclusive property rights are the premise and foundation of the market dealings, in which the country is playing an important role. Both the theoretical logic and the historic logic show that the government may effectively protect the property rights and may also violate the property rights at will on the short-term financial demand. This problem of the property rights can only be solved by imposing rigid constraints on the power of the government at the constitutional level. Therefore, based on the intrinsic link between property rights and taxation, to establish a new concept of the nature of taxation will help to clarify the constitutional nature of China＇s public finance at the system level.