人地比例变动与土地产权制度的变迁——一个关于制度矩阵的网络效果与路径依赖关系的历史分析

Change of the Rate of Population to Land and Evolution of the Property Rights of Land

笔者认为一个国家路径依赖的形成是制度矩阵作用所产生的网络效果。中国特殊的制度初始禀赋导致了人地比例日趋紧张,土地用养的尖锐矛盾促成了以小土地私有产权制度为核心、以精耕细作耕作制度为基础、以中央集权制度为保障、以精耕细作耕作制度与小土地私有产权制度的紧密联系以及小土地私有产权制度与中央集权制度的紧密结合为主要内容的制度矩阵在西汉时期的建立。这一制度矩阵中各制度向量在共同演进中的互相强化所产生的网络效果,是中国制度变迁路径依赖关系的核心。由于这一制度矩阵的演进导致对中国特定自然环境特征的强化,决定了中国现今的土地产权制度改革的方向必须是在土地国家终极所有的前提下,强化农民现有土地的长期使用权,并通过法律手段保证土地使用权的流转。

The unique institutional natural endowment in China leads to the in- creasingly serious situation that the amount of land is not in proportion with the population.The sharp conflict between land usage and its maintenance finally re- sulted in the establishment of the institutional matrix in the West Han Dynasty which took the small land property right as its core,the farming practice of in- tensive cultivation as its basis,the centralized monarchy as its safeguard;and which presented the correlation between the farming practice of intensive cultiva- tion and small land private property right as well as that between small land pri- vate property right and centralized monarchy.However,the enforcement of such an institutional matrix strengthened the institutional feature of the land out of proportion with the population.The path dependence caused by the above in- teraction implied that the current land property right reform in China should move toward the prospect that the state has the final ownership of the land,the current long-term right to use land by farmers should be strengthened and the transfer and circulation of the right to use land should be protected by the law.