“效率优先,兼顾公平”究竟错在哪里

在特定的历史时期,“效率优先,兼顾公平”的提法对于破除计划经济体制和平均主义观念起了积极的作用。随着中国发展进程的推进,这一提法逐渐显露出其明显的局限性,主要表现在:同以人为本的基本理念相抵触;没有区分基本制度和具体政策2个层面的公正问题;与和谐社会建设格格不入;将这一提法泛化并覆盖非经济领域;意味着现代政府主要职能的错位;对初次分配重效率、再次分配重公平的定位有误。从长远看,这一提法对中国社会经济的发展会产生广泛的负面影响:对现代社会的制度建设不利;对改革和发展的有机统一不利;对公正合理的社会结构的形成不利;延缓了合理、健全的社会政策的制定。正确的提法应当是:以社会公正为基本理念和基本准则,促进社会经济的协调发展,促进改革开放和现代化建设的整体化推进,促进和谐社会的建设。

What Is Wrong With "Efficiency Before Equality"

When the planned economic system was going into reform, the argument of "efficiency before equality" provided a positive drive in breaking the egalitarianism legacy and facilitated social-economic development under that particular historical background. However this argument is becoming more lopsided along with the development course in China, its limitation is shown in the conflict against the philosophy of "humanity-based" development. It failed to specify the issue of justice appropriately at the institutional vs. operational levels; it violates the principle of a harmonic society. When this argument is formalized and extends into non-economic fields, it inevitably results in a mis-positioning of the government in modern society, in a word, it is incorrect to assign the function of pursuing efficiency to the distributional actions, and letting the re-distribution take care of equality. From a long-term perspective, this points of view will shed widespread negative impact on the development of China' s economy and society, and will negatively impact on the formation of institutional structure with social justice in a modern society. It also holds back the process of healthier social policy designation. The right formulation should be: coordinated socio-economic development based on social justice; for a comprehensive progress in reform, open-up and modern construction, aiming at building a harmonic society.