1978年以来中国发展的轨迹与启示

自1978年以来,中国实行经济体制改革和对外开放政策,已经历了30个年头。30年所取得的巨大成就,令世界瞩目甚至震撼。二三十年前,“中国”曾经是“贫穷”、“落后”、“封闭”的代名词,今天,中国给世界的印象已是“繁荣”、“财富”甚至“强大”。只是一代人的时间,一个13亿人口的巨大国家就发生了天翻地覆、脱胎换骨的变化,是何种神奇力量所致?美国经济学家E.赫尔普曼(2004)在研究了各国发展的历史后指出:“我们可以认为,与研发投入或物质及人力资本积累相比,制度是决定经济增长的更基本因素。”那么,制度背后的力量又是什么?制度是人创造的,也是人改变的。可以说,是全体人民在创造和改变着社会制度,至少,只有得到人民认同的制度才能发挥推动历史的巨大作用。而制度的创造必须基于两个最基本的因素:一是现实的物质经济条件;二是对于发展的共同意识(这种共同意识可以是自觉的也可能是不自觉的)。因此,我们可以从这两个观察视角来回顾和分析中国近30年所走过的道路和取得的巨大成就,同时也更清晰、客观地认识面临的问题和矛盾。

Track and Enlightenment from China's Development since 1978

Since 1978,China has practiced the economic restructuring reform and the policy of reform and opening to the outside world,which has been fully carried out for more than 30 years.And the tremendous achievements of the past thirty years have drawn the wide attention from the whole world and even caused great sensation in the whole world.Approximately 20 or 30 years ago,China was once a synonym for "extreme poverty","backwardness" and "being isolated from the outside world".Yet today,China gives the public in the whole world a totally new impression,such as "wealth" or even "powerhouse".It only takes a period of one generation that such as large country with a total population of 1.3 billion has experienced earth-shaking and drastic changes,but what kind of magic power can make it as what China has already achieved thus far?E.Helpman,American economist(2004)pointed out after making the in-depth study of the development history of all countries,"It can be thought that an institution represents the most fundamental factor in boosting the economic growth compared with research input or the material and human resource accumulation".As we know,institution is the more essential factor determining the economic growth.So what is the strength behind an institution? An institution is created by people and changed also by people.At least,only an institution recognized by people can play a tremendous role of giving an impetus to the evolution of history.However,the formulation of an institution must be based on the two most fundamental factors,respectively,one,the realistic material and economic conditions,the other,the common consciousness(which can be either self-conscious or unconscious).Therefore,we can review and analyze the past roads taken and the tremendous achievements made by China in the past thirty years from the two observing perspectives and at the same time we can more clearly and objectively tackle the problems and contradictions we are now confronted with.