集权与分权:基于中央政府的财政体制变迁分析

集权还是分权或如何集权和分权,是厘清财政体制改革思路和确定未来财政体制改革方向需要讨论的焦点。自上世纪70年代末经济体制改革以来,中国财政体制经历了包干制改革和分税制改革两次由中央政府主导的以利益诱导为主要手段的强制性变迁。两种方式的改革都有自身的成本和收益。财政包干制的制度特征决定了其具有中央政府难以控制的交易成本,并具有成本递增机制。分税制是一种长期的合理制度安排,但其成本机制也确实阻碍了中央和地方理想收益目标的实现。进一步的制度变迁方向,是在坚持分税制分权化制度变迁路径的前提下,通过改进分税制的具体制度设计来使更多的外部收入内部化,并须以实现中央与地方政府的分级行政和奠定中央与地方财政关系的制度规则的宪法基础为基本条件。

Centralization and Decentralization: Analysis of the Evolution of Financial System Guided by Central Government

Centralization or decentralization?-a focus issue to resolve before defining the outline and direction of the future financial reform. Since 1970s when economic reform was implemented, China's financial system has witnessed two reforms: overall rationing system and tax division system, both of which are the forced reforms led by central government and boosted by benefit inducement. The two reforms have their own cost and benefit. The overall rationing system results in the cost increasing mechanism and the transaction cost hard to control for central government. Tax division system is a long-term and reasonable system arrangement but the cost mechanism has actually become the obstacle for central government and local government to realize ideal benefit goals. The direction for the further system evolution is: under the prerequisite of insisting on tax division system and power decentralization, make more external income internal by improving the system arrangement of tax division system. Such reform shall take as the basic condition the hierarchic administration by central and local government as well as the constitution on which the financial relationship between central and local government is based.