摘要
According to North, Wallis and Weingast＇s （NWW, 2009） conceptual framework, China＇s transition to the market economy can be analyzed as a mature natural state evolving towards an open access order. The paper briefly sums up the general concepts of this theory and their adaptation to the historical conditions of the Chinese ＂Socialist Market Economy＂. It then shows that while the doorstep conditions to such an opening are put together, the route followed by the creation of market and the access to property of a 1.3 billion population is highly specific. In particular, the urbanization policy granting the ownership of housing to several hundred million of individual citizens creates unprecedented institutional needs. In this context, we suggest that rather than introducing formal political competition within the State, the monitoring of the policy through the digital social networks, and notably through the information exchanged by the 500 million of Weibo users, can provide useful and efficient guidance. In others words, that in a country with little rule of law tradition, Weibo sustains the emergence of an active civil society creating a new path to an open access order.
