马珺：The Role of Non-Profit Organizations in Public Goods Provision in Contemporary China

    The Role of Non-Profit Organizations in Public Goods Provision in Contemporary China， with Brian Dollery, 2010，new submission.
    ABSTRACT: Chinese social scientists have placed increasing emphasis on the positive role which non-profit organizations (NPO) have played in public goods provision in contemporary Chinese society against the background of comprehensive government failure in public good provision over the past few decades. However, the analysis of Chinese NPO is complicated by the fact that conventional theoretical approaches to the non-profit sector cannot be readily applied to Chinese NPOs. This is largely due to the unusual relationship between the Chinese state and the non-profit sector which explains why NPOs in China operate differently from their western counterparts. This relationship also defines the role non-profit sector can play in Chinese society generally, including the provision of public goods. Against this institutional setting, the present paper seeks to develop a theoretical explanation for the status of NPOs in the one-party Chinese political system. The paper employs a modified dictatorship model to this end. It is argued that the space that non-profit sector acquires for its development depends heavily on the extent NPOs enhance or weaken the Chinese ruling body’s legitimacy, where the ruling body is assumed to be a legitimacy maximizer.
    中文摘要：过去几十年来，由于中国的公共物品供给上广泛存在着政府失灵现象，非营利组织的积极作用受到社会科学工作者越来越多的强调。然而，传统的非营利部门理论并不能直接应用于对中国非营利部门的分析。在很大程度，这是由于中国特殊的国家-非营利部门关系造成的，后者解释了为什么中国非营利组织的运行与西方国家不同，也解释了非营利组织总体上在中国社会能够扮演怎样的角色，包括在公共物品供给中能发挥怎样的作用。基于这一背景，文章利用修正的独裁者模型，尝试建立一种基于中国特定政治背景的、用于理解非营利组织作用的理论框架。文章认为，在治国者追求合法性最大化的假定下，非营利组织发挥作用的空间，高度依赖于它在多大程度上增进或者削弱了治国者的合法性。
    

——作者：马珺  日期：2011年3月22日