2024: China’s Institutional Advantages Propel High-Quality Economic Development

Fully Leveraging China’s Institutional Advantages to Promote High-Quality Economic Development

充分发挥我国制度优势推动经济高质量发展

来源：中国社会科学网-中国社会科学报

Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net – Chinese Social Sciences Daily, May 13, 2024, 10:18
Author: Guo Jinxing (Associate Researcher, Center for Political Economy, Nankai University)

Institutions are crucial elements determining the long-term development performance of a country or region, a significant consensus reached in the economics field over the past thirty years. However, institutions are multifaceted and complex. The “ideal” institutional conditions described by the neoclassical economic paradigm often diverge significantly from the actual conditions in developing countries. Over the past forty years, China’s economic development has achieved remarkable success, but it must be acknowledged that China’s specific institutions do not align with the “standard theories” or “ideal paradigms.” This discrepancy has been referred to by some scholars as the “China puzzle.”

The key to unraveling this puzzle lies in understanding that the ideal paradigms of economic theory are based on the institutional backgrounds of developed countries, which differ significantly from the institutional conditions needed by developing countries. National capacity is a crucial factor among these conditions, yet it has received limited attention in the economic theories of developing countries. National capacity is a key determinant of a country’s development performance and is the fundamental reason for China’s achievements over the past few decades. A strong national capacity is an important manifestation of China’s institutional advantages, and promoting the transformation and modernization of national capacity is a necessary condition for achieving high-quality economic development in China.

National Capacity as a Key Factor in Economic Development Performance

From over two hundred years of development experience since the Industrial Revolution, whether during the economic take-off stage or the catch-up stage, and whether in first-mover or latecomer countries, strong national capacity has been a necessary condition for achieving good economic development performance. In first-mover countries, national capacity continuously strengthened, providing necessary long-term support for economic development. However, development economics focusing on the experiences of Western countries tends to emphasize state interference rather than the lack of national capacity, which contrasts with the issues faced by some developing countries.

Since the late 1970s, political economists’ studies on the East Asian model have provided important insights into the role of national capacity in economic development. These studies found that Japan, Singapore, and other countries that achieved excellent development performance after World War II did not follow the laissez-faire economic development model emphasized by the neoclassical paradigm. Instead, the state played a significant role in economic development, not only in the construction of infrastructure such as transportation and communication and the provision of basic public services like education and healthcare but also in establishing close relationships with enterprises, providing extensive policy guidance and support based on market mechanisms, which has been summarized as the “developmental state” or “market-enhancing state.” In analyzing this development model, scholars introduced the important concept of “national capacity,” generally referring to the state’s ability to achieve its goals. The differences in economic development performance between countries lie not in the awareness or extent of knowledge about policies that promote economic development, as such knowledge is known even in the most underdeveloped countries. The difference lies in whether the state has the capacity to implement some of the most basic development policies. A clear fact is that few countries outside the East Asian region have succeeded by imitating the East Asian model.

Even as Adam Smith said, transforming a country from the poorest to the most prosperous requires only peace, easy taxes, and tolerable justice administration. However, meeting these necessary development conditions still requires a certain level of national capacity. Recent theoretical and empirical research has shown that forming and maintaining national capacity is not easily achievable but requires the participation and willingness of all social strata in national economic development and sustained investment to consolidate national capacity. Many developing countries remain trapped in poverty not due to excessive state interference in the economy but precisely because of a lack of national capacity to provide the necessary support for economic development.

Strong National Capacity as China’s Institutional Advantage

The “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Adhering to and Improving the Socialist System with Chinese Characteristics, Promoting the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Capacity,” 《中共中央关于坚持和完善中国特色社会主义制度、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化若干重大问题的决定》 adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, summarized many significant advantages of China’s national system and governance system, such as

• Centralized and unified leadership of the Communist Party of China,
• Organic combination of the socialist system and market economy, and
• Being a once independent and open.

These institutional advantages fully explain the formation, basic characteristics, and main manifestations of China’s strong national capacity. As an institutional factor, national capacity has a strong path dependency characteristic. China’s national capacity partly stems from a long historical and cultural tradition, an important institutional heritage, and partly from the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China guided by Marxism, making it an important product and prominent manifestation of combining the basic principles of Marxism with excellent traditional Chinese culture.

For over a century, the Communist Party of China has adhered to Marxism, utilizing the organizational capacities and valuable experiences developed and accumulated over different periods to rebuild strong national capacity during the socialist revolution and construction periods. This maintained national independence, completed socialist transformation, promoted education and healthcare systems in urban and rural areas, achieved initial industrialization, and accumulated certain technical capabilities for rapid economic growth. Leveraging this strong national capacity, the Chinese government has continuously advanced institutional changes since the reform and opening-up, providing broader public goods and services, maintaining macroeconomic stability, promoting economic and industrial structural optimization, and driving China’s economic take-off and catch-up over the past forty years. This has narrowed the income and technological gaps with developed countries, steadily advancing toward becoming a high-income economy.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in the comprehensive process of promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, national capacity has been further enhanced. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out profoundly, “Only by accelerating the establishment of a new development pattern can we solidify the foundation of our economic development and enhance the security and stability of development,” “ensuring that the process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is not delayed or interrupted and that the goal of building a socialist modern power in all respects is achieved victoriously.”

The widespread application of digital technology has improved the efficiency of economic and social operations, promoting continuous adjustments in economic structure and upgrading industrial structures. China’s economy has achieved a leap from rapid growth to high-quality development 【高质量发展】. The implementation of a comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy has eliminated absolute poverty, lifting nearly 100 million rural poor people out of poverty and achieving the grand goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, laying a solid material and institutional foundation for advancing Chinese-style modernization. Especially in the face of more complex and severe external shocks and challenges, China has relied on its strong national capacity to achieve economic and social stability, creating favorable conditions for successfully responding to the unprecedented changes in a century.

Promoting High-Quality Economic Development through the Transformation of National Capacity

National capacity has different dimensions and types. For example, basic capacity refers to the state’s ability to achieve its goals through consultation, negotiation, and persuasion, while coercive capacity refers to the state’s ability to achieve its goals without consultation. Different dimensions or types of national capacity play different roles at different stages of economic development. This implies that with changes in the development model, the main characteristics and application methods of national capacity also need to be constantly transformed to adapt to the new development model. With the improvement of income levels and changes in the stage of economic development in China, the driving force of economic growth has gradually shifted from factor accumulation, resource reallocation, and technology imitation to independent innovation, transitioning from rapid growth to high-quality development. This provides inherent motivation for the transformation of national capacity. The emphasis on promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity in the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China responds to this significant practical issue.

In the economic take-off stage, low-income, or lower-middle-income stages, a country’s latecomer advantage is more pronounced, mainly reflected in the significant technological gap between latecomer countries and developed countries, allowing for the promotion and application of mature technologies and products to achieve rapid economic growth and industrial structure upgrades. Early national capacity can directly affect economic growth through material capital accumulation, human capital enhancement, and resource reallocation. However, in the stage of transitioning from upper-middle-income to high-income levels, as technological levels approach the global frontier, independent innovation needs to play an increasingly important role in economic growth, aligning with the current goal of “accelerating the development of new productive forces and solidly promoting high-quality development.” “加快发展新质生产力，扎实推进高质量发展”

High-quality economic development requires a high-quality institutional environment. This necessitates leveraging strong national capacity to cultivate, maintain, and develop a vibrant market economy, ensuring the effective operation of market mechanisms and providing necessary infrastructure, basic public services, and social security systems to promote various innovation activities characterized by “creative destruction.” After all, technological progress and industrial structure upgrading are the intrinsic drivers of high-quality economic development.

In the digital economy era, as the interconnections among different markets, industries, sectors, and enterprises become more complex, the government needs to collect and process more complex information when formulating and implementing economic policies and understand the interests of different groups. These factors impose higher demands on national capacity. Moreover, high-quality economic development requires continuously improving the level of legal governance, clarifying the boundaries between the government and the market, establishing a credible institutional framework for the application of national capacity, and providing clear policy expectations for market entities. Marketization and bringing it within the framework of the law are inevitable requirements for high-quality economic development, and the modernization transformation of national capacity and the construction of a law-based China will provide a solid institutional guarantee for high-quality economic development.

(This article is a product of one stage of the general project of the National Social Science Fund “Formalized Facts, Theoretical Logic, and Chinese Experience of National Capacity Promoting Economic Catch-up” [23BJL082])

[Editor: Xu Qianyang]

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充分发挥我国制度优势推动经济高质量发展

来源：中国社会科学网-中国社会科学报2024-05-13 10:18

　　作者：郭金兴（南开大学政治经济学研究中心副研究员）

　　制度是决定一个国家或地区长期发展绩效的重要元素，这是近三十余年经济学界形成的一项重要共识。然而，制度是多维且复杂的。实际上，新古典经济学范式所描述的“理想”的制度条件往往与发展中国家的实际状况相去甚远。四十余年来中国经济发展取得了举世瞩目的成就，但是毋庸讳言，中国的具体制度并不符合“标准理论”或者“理想范式”的描述，这种反差被有些学者称为“中国之谜”。

　　解开这一谜题的关键，就在于理解经济理论的理想范式是以发达国家的制度为基本背景的，发展中国家所需要的制度条件与之有着明显的差别。国家能力就是其中一个至关重要的因素，但是长期以来，这一概念在发展中国家的经济理论中受到的关注有限。国家能力是决定一国发展绩效的关键因素，也是中国过去几十年来取得辉煌成就的根本原因。强大的国家能力是中国制度优势的重要体现，促进国家能力转型与现代化，是实现中国经济高质量发展的必要条件。

　　国家能力是决定经济发展绩效的关键因素

　　从工业革命以来二百多年的发展经验来看，无论在经济起飞阶段还是经济赶超阶段，无论是先发国家还是后发国家，强大的国家能力都是取得良好经济发展绩效的必要条件。先发国家的国家能力不断增强，从而为经济发展提供了必要的长期支持，然而，以西方国家经验为研究对象的发展经济学更为关注的是国家的不当干预，而不是国家能力的匮乏，这与部分发展中国家所面临的问题有着显著的差异。

　　从20世纪70年代后期开始，一些政治经济学者对东亚模式的研究为回答国家能力在经济发展中的作用提供了一条重要的线索。这些研究发现，二战以后发展绩效较为优异的日本、新加坡等并未遵循新古典范式所强调的自由放任的经济发展模式，国家在经济发展中扮演了重要角色。其不仅体现在交通通信等基础设施的建设和教育医疗等基本公共服务的提供上，也表现在与企业建立起密切的联系，并以市场机制为基础，进行广泛的政策引导并扶持企业的发展上，这被概括为“发展型政府”或者“市场增强型政府”。在分析这种发展模式时，这些学者引入了“国家能力”这一重要概念，一般是指国家实现既定目标的能力。不同国家经济发展绩效的差异并不在于是否了解，以及在多大程度上了解促进经济发展的政策知识，实际上，即使在最为落后的国家，这种知识都是为人所知的，差别在于国家是否有能力实施一些最为基本的发展政策。一个明显的事实就是，鲜有其他地区的国家通过模仿东亚模式而取得成功。

　　即使如亚当·斯密所言，除了和平、轻赋和尚可容忍的司法管理，从一个最为贫困的国家变成一个最为繁荣的国家，并不需要假借其他的条件。但是，满足这些发展所必需的条件仍需具备一定的国家能力。近些年来，理论和经验研究纷纷表明，国家能力的形成和维持并非轻而易举就能实现，而是需要全社会各个阶层都有参与国家经济发展的意愿，并为夯实国家能力持续进行大量的投资。很多发展中国家长期陷入贫困陷阱之中，并非由于国家对经济的过多干预，恰恰由于缺乏国家能力，从而无法为经济发展提供必要的支持。

　　强大的国家能力是我国制度优势所在

　　党的十九届四中全会审议通过的《中共中央关于坚持和完善中国特色社会主义制度、推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化若干重大问题的决定》，凝练了我国国家制度和国家治理体系的诸多显著优势，比如中国共产党的集中统一领导、社会主义制度和市场经济有机结合、独立自主和对外开放相统一等。这些制度优势充分解释了中国强大国家能力的形成原因、基本特征和主要表现。国家能力作为一种制度因素，具有很强的路径依赖的特征。中国国家能力一方面根源于悠久的历史文化传统，是一种重要的制度遗产；另一方面则来自以马克思主义为指导的中国共产党的坚强领导，因而是把马克思主义基本原理同中华优秀传统文化相结合的重要产物和突出表现。

　　百余年来，中国共产党坚持以马克思主义为指导，运用不同时期发展和积累起来的组织能力和有益经验，在社会主义革命和建设时期重新建立起强大的国家能力，维护了国家的独立，完成了社会主义改造，在城乡地区推广教育和医疗体系，实现了初步的工业化，为经济高速增长积累了一定的技术能力。中国政府借助这种强大的国家能力，在改革开放之后不断推进制度变迁，提供更为广泛的公共品和公共服务，维持宏观经济稳定，促进经济结构和产业结构的优化，推动中国经济在过去四十余年实现了经济起飞和经济赶超，缩小了与发达国家的收入差距和技术差距，向高收入经济体稳步迈进。

　　党的十八大以来，在全面推进中华民族伟大复兴的进程中，国家能力得到进一步提升。习近平总书记深刻指出，“只有加快构建新发展格局，才能夯实我国经济发展的根基、增强发展的安全性稳定性”，“确保中华民族伟大复兴进程不被迟滞甚至中断，胜利实现全面建成社会主义现代化强国目标”。数字技术的广泛应用提高了经济社会运行效率，促进了经济结构的持续调整和产业结构的优化升级，我国经济实现了由高速增长向高质量发展的跨越式转变。通过实施精准扶贫战略消除了绝对贫困，使将近一亿农村贫困人口全部脱贫，实现了全面建成小康社会的宏伟目标，为推进中国式现代化奠定了坚实的物质基础和制度基础。尤其是面对更加复杂严峻的外部冲击和挑战，中国依靠强大的国家能力实现了经济社会的稳定，为成功应对世界百年未有之大变局创造了有利的条件。

　　以国家能力转型促进经济高质量发展

　　国家能力具有不同的维度，也具有不同的类型。比如，基础型能力是指国家通过协商、谈判和说服等方式实现自己目标的能力，而强制型能力是指国家无需协商就可以实现自己目标的能力。不同维度或者不同类型的国家能力在经济发展的不同阶段发挥的作用也是有差别的。这意味着随着发展模式的转变，国家能力的主要特征和运用方式也需要不断转型，以适应新的发展模式。随着我国收入水平的提高和经济发展阶段的变化，经济增长动力从要素积累、资源重新配置和技术模仿逐渐转向自主创新，经济由高速增长转向高质量发展。这为国家能力转型提供了内在的动力，党的十九届四中全会所强调的推动国家治理体系和治理能力现代化正是对这一重大现实问题的回应。

　　在经济起飞阶段、低收入或者中低收入阶段，一国的后发优势较为明显，主要表现为后发国家与发达国家有着明显的技术落差，因而可以通过将成熟的技术和产品加以推广和应用，从而实现经济的高速增长和产业结构的快速提升。早期的国家能力通过直接作用于物质资本的积累、人力资本的提升和资源的重新配置，可以对经济增长产生显著的效果。但是，在由中高收入迈向高收入水平的阶段，随着技术水平越来越接近世界前沿，自主创新需要在经济增长中发挥越来越重要的作用，与当前“加快发展新质生产力，扎实推进高质量发展”不谋而合。

　　经济高质量发展需要具备高质量的制度环境。这需要运用强大的国家能力培育、维持和发展富有活力的市场经济，使市场机制有效运转，并且提供必要的基础设施、基本公共服务和社会保障体系，从而推动以“创造性毁灭”为根本特征的各类创新活动，毕竟，技术进步和产业结构升级才是经济高质量发展的内在动力。数字经济时代，由于经济形态与各个市场、行业、部门和企业相互之间的联系变得更加复杂，政府在制定和实施经济政策时也需要采集和处理更为复杂的信息，了解不同群体的利益诉求。这些都对国家能力提出了更高的要求。此外，经济高质量发展也需要不断提高法治化水平，厘清政府与市场的边界，为国家能力的运用设定可信的制度框架，为市场主体提供明确的政策预期。市场化和法治化是经济高质量发展的必然要求，而国家能力的现代化转型与法治中国的建设将为经济高质量发展提供坚实的制度保障。

　　（本文系国家社科基金一般项目“国家能力促进经济赶超的程式化事实、理论逻辑与中国经验”（23BJL082）阶段性成果）