An Overview of Government-Market Relationships:Evolving Perceptions,Role of the Market,and Government Functions

Building a high-level socialist market economy is conducive to giving full play to the market’s decisive role in resource allocations and bringing the government into better play.Correctly handling the market and the government relationships has been a central issue in China’s economic structural reform.Giving a comprehensive review and summary of the research findings achieved by the theoretical and academic circles in China,we generalize the evolution and working mechanisms of China’s socialist market economy system,following the developing trajectory and logic of relevant literature,focusing on the three aspects of evolving perceptions,the role of the market,and the functions of the government.Based on our literature overview,we also induced and extracted the basic conclusions and evolutionary features of relevant research and made suggestions for the future direction of theoretical research regarding China’s socialist market economy.

The Control of Population Growth Is the Function of the Central Government

Mr.Jiang Zcmin,Gencral-Seerctary of the Cen-tral Committee of the Chincse Communist Party and.Chairman of the People's Republic of China,in a rC-ccnt spcech cm phasized that the family planning pro-gramme should be strictly and effectively im plemented in 1994,a year of crucial importance for promoting re-form and opening and thc drive lowards.modernization.To makc continucd contributions to the sociocconomic development in the country,we must fulfil the plan for controlling population growth..The spcech was delivcred at the anua!National Fo-rum on Family Planning Work convened jointly by the Party's Central Committcc and the Statc Council.

Promoting the Transformation of Government Function for Achieving the Coordinated Urban-Rural Development of Resources and Environment: Practice of “MultiPlan Integration” in Xiamen

This paper analyzes the main problems in China's urban planning and construction, including conf licts among various spatial plans, the lack of a unified spatial planning management system, the inefficiency of examination and approval administration, and the social contradictions caused by unclear information. It articulates the significance of multi-plan integration from the viewpoints of implementing the national strategies issued by the central government, meeting the underlying demand of development transition of cities, and promoting the modernization of a city governance system and city governance capacity, etc. It introduces in detail the practice of multi-plan integration in Xiamen, which takes the urban development strategies in consensus as the top-level design, establishes a spatial planning system through the "strict control based on one blueprint" and the "coordinated management on one platform," promotes the transformation of the government function via reforming the examination and approval administration system, and builds up a guarantee mechanism through the direct inspection by the top leader of the government and the joint efforts from the top to the bottom. It finally summarizes the effects of the practice of multi-plan integration in Xiamen and proposes some suggestions on further completing the spatial planning system, improving the examination and approval administration system, and accelerating the transformation of the government function, etc., in hope of serving as a reference for other Chinese cities.

Features of the Chinese administrative system and the expansion of fiscal expenditures

The overly rapid expansion of fiscal expenditure is an issue the government should take seriously.There are two major causes for the expansion of fiscal expenditure--stress caused by the demand for public goods and stress caused by the features of the administrative system.The influence of the administrative system on fiscal expenditure is demonstrated through the following aspects--the definition of government functions,the development concept of government as well as hierarchies and department setting of governments.The features of China’s administrative system strongly boost the expansion of fiscal expenditure.It is displayed through the concept of rapid development at all government levels,relatively broad definition of government functions,the manifold departments and multi-level settings in the government.The Chinese governments should attach great importance to this issue and take proper measures to relieve the conflict.Some suggested measures include weaving appropriate capital restrictions into government planning,improving the methods of setting targets in planning,building a coordination mechanism for departmental budgets,practicing expenditure budget performance evaluation and releasing the results,as well as adjusting the hierarchical setting of governments.

Sub-Provincial Fiscal Expenditure Decentralization Structure:A Case in China

This paper uses the data from the post-1994 tax reform in China to investigate the vertical and spatial structures of sub-provincial fiscal expenditure decentralization(SPFED)in China.The study shows that,on the whole,SPFED tends to be gradually biased toward the county level,but inter-provincial differences are obvious,and the provincial centralization is more obvious in less economically developed regions.In terms of expenditure items,the province level enjoys a relatively higher level of economic expenditure decentralization(EED),and the county level enjoys a higher level of social expenditure decentralization(SED).In terms of internal structure,the difference in the level of EED shared by the province,prefecture and county levels is relatively smaller and the difference in the level of SED is relatively larger.In terms of spatial structure,in less developed regions,the province level enjoys a higher EED but a lower SED;in developed regions,the prefecture and county levels enjoy a higher EED but the prefecture level enjoys a relatively lower SED.These findings can provide empirical evidence for the reform of the division of power and expenditure responsibility,as well as the governance of sub-provincial governments.