中國大陸東西部發展不平衡的起源：國家、市場、區域開發

Abstract

本文始於對「西部大開發」內涵的解讀，認定其乃針對東西失衡之政策回應。然此東西之間的發展落差，究境淵源於「市場」抑或「國家」？此問題即為本文關切之焦點。目前對此東西差距的詮釋，向為「國家中心觀」所支配，根據此一論點，今日之特區失衡，必須溯及昔日中央政府的傾斜政策。有鑒其未盡周延，本文乃強調「市場」的關鍵角色，認為必須將「市場」納入考量，方能有效連綴「國家政策」與「東西失衡」間的因果關係。故依本文的觀點，東西間之發展落差，實乃「市場」又須在「國家」的卵翼與扶助之下，方得孕育茁壯。本文嘗試就此建立架構，以解釋東西發展落差的起源，並探討區域失衡的整治之道。

Regional disparity is often identified as one of the major challenges China faces today. Government policy in the 1980s is generally considered as leading to disparity between China`s costal and inland provinces. This paper challenges this dominant view and claims that it is the market that produces such disparity. The paper is divided into five parts. In the first section, the author claims that today`s ”Go West” project can be considered as a government effort to deal with the regional inequality acquired in China`s market transition. The question then arises: What causes the growing distance in the economic development of Eastern and Western China? According to Shaoguang Wang and Angang Hu, today`s “uneven development: must be attributed to central government`s policy in the 1980s, which systematically favored costal areas. The second part of the paper provides an introduction to and an extensive critique of this so-called ”the political explanation of uneven regional development.” In the third section, the author seeks to establish the link between ”market” and ”regional inequality” and ”regional inequality” and thus proposes an alternative explanation to Wang and Hu`s. The author then identifies the self-reinforcing, exploiting, and disarticulating propensities of the ”market institution” and argues that it is this institution that brings about China`s East-West disparity. In the end, this paper concludes with a suggestion to achieve regional equality by creating the market in Western China.