Economic transformation seems to be the triumph of the "invisible hand", attacking the city and plundering the land, and the "tangible hand" retreating step by step and losing ground. Everything takes marketization as its value orientation. However, whether the market economy itself can be formed spontaneously depends entirely on the market itself and whether the economic transformation can be realized automatically? Is the goal of economic transformation we are pursuing really a so-called free economy in which the market dominates the world and the country disappears without a trace in economic life? If not, how can we achieve a successful economic transformation? What is the target system after economic transformation?
At present, in the period of economic transformation in China, the new economic system is still in the process of establishment and perfection, and the old economic system and concepts have not completely withdrawn from the historical stage. The impact and confrontation between the old and new systems make the contradictions exposed in the economic field intertwined and complicated. Solving these problems is not only an urgent requirement to promote economic development, but also a basic prerequisite for the success of economic transformation, and the solution of every contradiction can not be separated from the guidance of economic law and the establishment and improvement of economic legal system.
First, the government's position in the market economy is vague, which urgently needs to be repositioned according to the concept of economic law.
The lag of government reform is the main contradiction in the process of China's economic transformation. Since the reform and opening up, all previous government institutional reforms have been unsatisfactory, and the transformation of government functions has failed to achieve substantive results. One of the main reasons is that the theoretical understanding is vague and the correct position of the country in modern economic life has not been completely solved. Before the reform and opening up, the government was an all-encompassing government, and all aspects of economic activities: production, exchange, distribution and consumption were controlled by the government. The administrative relationship characterized by command and obedience has achieved absolute dominance, and enterprises and individuals have completely lost their initiative and creativity. In recent years, with the gradual establishment and improvement of the socialist market economic system, the argument that the government should completely withdraw from the field of economic activities and only be a night watchman and leave everything to the market once won applause from many parties. On the issue of the relationship between the state and the market, we are often either one or the other. The country is either "offside" or "vacant" and is always rarely "in place".
At present, China's reform is facing the challenge of overall economic and social transformation, which is a new stage of more profound and complicated reform. Economic transformation requires the construction of modern property rights relations, and social transformation requires the formation of a new social interest integration mechanism. With the overall transformation of economy and society, the state has become a collection of multiple identities and functions after many times of separation of rights. Specifically, in the modern market economy, the state should have three identities (administrative manager, economic manager and owner of state-owned assets) and three functions (administrative management function, economic management function and owner of state-owned assets) to realize the separation of three powers (administrative management and economic management, economic management and ownership of state-owned assets, ownership and management of state-owned assets or property rights of legal persons). When countries exercise different functions in different capacities, they will form different legal relations. Only by correctly understanding the nature of various legal relations in which the state participates can we accurately apply the law and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all parties.
At the same time, we believe that according to the basic requirements of economic law, it is necessary to realize the transformation of the government's economic management function and the transformation of the government's governance mode, from relying on administrative orders to relying on legal protection, and following the economic and legal system to exercise the country's economic management function, so as to realize a historic leap from rule by man to rule by law.
Second, the dual structure of the economy is remarkable, and the solution of urban-rural and regional contradictions depends on the improvement of the economic legal system.
There are multiple dual structural contradictions in China's economy, the most prominent of which is the huge contrast between urban and rural economic and social development levels and the regional differences caused by unbalanced regional economic development. The increasingly prominent contradiction between urban and rural areas and regions has become the main structural obstacle that restricts the further development of China's economy. How to solve this contradiction is not only the primary problem in economic development, but also a serious political problem.
Economic law not only follows the basic laws of market economy, respects the independence, autonomy and creativity of market subjects, but also emphasizes that the state should play a correct role in economic life. The dialectical unity of its "invisible hand" and "visible hand" shows its natural advantages and uniqueness in solving the binary contradiction between urban and rural areas and regions.
In view of the serious shortage of financial investment in public health, basic education and social security in rural areas; Illegal occupation of farmers' land, arbitrary reduction of compensation standards for land acquisition, ignoring the employment and living arrangements of land-expropriated farmers, excessive burden on farmers, indiscriminate fund-raising and apportionment, and so on. Perfecting the economic and legal system from the following three aspects will help to build a standardized, sustained and long-term legal mechanism to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.
Because China has not yet formulated a unified financial law, the division of administrative and financial rights between the central and local governments is unclear, and the rights and obligations are unclear, which leads to the failure to implement the responsibility of fiscal expenditure, and the bargaining phenomenon between higher and lower governments is more common. Moreover, the financial system of cities leading counties, which is widely implemented in China at present, objectively makes rural social and economic resources and capital mainly absorbed by cities, which intensifies the dual division between urban and rural areas. The chief executive's pursuit of immediate achievements and the lack of legal norms on fiscal expenditure often make rural areas the ultimate victims. Therefore, first of all, we should establish a scientific and complete financial legal system, clarify the responsibilities, expenditure responsibilities and tax division rules of governments at all levels, establish a unified principle of public expenditure covering urban and rural areas, strengthen the expenditure obligations of governments at all levels above the city for rural basic education and basic social security, standardize the financial transfer payment system between governments at higher and lower levels, and concretize the various systems of urban feeding back to rural areas, so as to fundamentally help narrow the gap between urban and rural areas.
Secondly, it is necessary to further improve the land contract law, clarify the real right nature of the land contract right, and endow the power protection with litigation. Although the new land contract law in 2003 has played a great role in protecting farmers' long-term and stable land contract rights and limiting land contractors' abuse of power, there are still many problems unsolved. First of all, the work of confirming rights is seriously lagging behind. It is estimated that there are still about 30% farmers who have not obtained the land contractual management right certificate. The lag of ownership registration procedure leads to a large number of land contract disputes that can only be applied to land contract, which weakens the real right nature of land contract right and objectively encourages the employer to break the contract at will. Secondly, the form of liability for infringement of land contract right is single, the legal liability is light and the illegal cost is low. According to Article 54 of the Contract Law, those who infringe upon the right to land contract only bear civil responsibilities such as "stopping the infringement, returning the original things, restoring the original state, removing obstacles, eliminating dangers, and compensating for losses", and hardly bear criminal responsibilities. The so-called civil liability, because the infringers are mainly village and township collective organizations, is almost difficult to implement in fact. Finally, the right relief channel is blocked and the litigation is poor. For a long time, many grass-roots courts refused to accept rural land contract disputes. 1999 after the supreme court issued the judicial interpretation of rural land contract disputes, although it stipulated that it should be accepted, many places lacked a correct understanding of the typical economic and legal relationship of land contract, and still struggled with the debate about whether the legal relationship was civil or administrative. As a result, farmers' legal right to judicial relief was sacrificed.
Finally, it is necessary to establish and improve the legal system of agricultural taxation and standardize various agricultural charges. The reason why arbitrary charges and levies are repeatedly prohibited is that there are many kinds of rural taxes and fees in China, including agricultural tax, additional tax, special tax, slaughter tax, "three mentions and five unification", education fund-raising, local administrative labor service charges, local administrative charge and so on. The collection of these taxes and fees is mainly based on the tax administrative regulations and decisions of governments at all levels, and there is no legal constraint on the authority and procedures for the creation of charging items. The existing normative documents on rural taxes and fees are low in rank and lacking. With the gradual advancement of rural tax and fee reform, when conditions are ripe, we can start with minimizing the burden on farmers, straighten out the distribution relationship between the state, the collective and farmers with a unified agricultural tax law, standardize the basic distribution system in rural areas, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of farmers from the system.
Let's look at the regional differences again. In order to narrow the gap among the three major economic regions, since the mid-1990s, China has been implementing the policy of coordinated regional economic development, and has continuously increased its policy inclination towards the central and western regions. With the promotion of economic transformation, the transformation of state functions and the establishment of public finance system, the central government is bound to change the previous support mode of direct investment in setting up factories, and it will become an inevitable choice to increase financial transfer payments to the central and western regions.
The financial transfer payment system is a common practice and basic way for tax-sharing countries to deal with the financial relationship between the central and local governments. It is based on the vertical imbalance between central and local finance and the horizontal imbalance of local finance, and it is a financial expenditure system adopted by the state to achieve balanced development of various undertakings between regions. The purpose of implementing the transfer payment system is to adjust the imbalance of regional economic development through the transfer and distribution of central financial resources, so as to achieve the purpose of implementing the central macro-control policy by using the financial distribution function.
However, China's current financial transfer payment system has obvious transitional characteristics, and there are still many problems. For example, the tax rebate is based on ensuring local vested interests, thus bringing the original problem of uneven financial resources into the tax-sharing financial system, which fails to reflect the principle of fiscal balance and runs counter to the basic goal of establishing transfer payment; The central government's special funds and subsidies to local governments lack standardized legal basis and reasonable distribution standards, which is inconsistent with the principle of division of powers between central and local governments. In addition, financial subsidies are low in transparency and arbitrariness, and lack of supervision and restraint also needs to be changed. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate the transfer payment law, clarify the principles, objectives and forms of fiscal transfer payment, formulate scientific and reasonable calculation standards, form a set of standardized supervision and restraint mechanisms, and fully and effectively play the role of fiscal transfer payment system in balancing regional differences.
Third, the market economic order is chaotic, and political chaos should give way to governance according to law.
Economic transformation is often accompanied by the chaos of economic order. The market itself cannot automatically produce a good order. As a public product, order must and can only be provided by the government. Trying to achieve a good market economic order solely by relying on the civil legal system and the self-restraint of market subjects is a superstitious worship of the market and is doomed to be a moon in the water and a flower in the mirror. To create a good economic order, we must rely on the power of the government, and the government must also change the previous administrative command management model. A temporary storm can only wash away the floating soil and filth on the surface, but it can't cross the deep soil that breeds chaos, and it can't cultivate an orderly and vibrant garden.