2020, 35(4): 4-19.
Abstract:
Since the 1980 s, historical sociology and new financial history in Europe and the United States for the first time have taken"state"and"financial history"as independent variables of social science analysis and included them into the research field of "comparative modernization". Historical sociology maps the financial reform from the state-building, and new financial history interprets the state transformation from the financial system change. From opposite directions, they have completed the academic marriage of "state"and "finance". Seen from experience and logic, state-building can be divided into state formation and state transformation. State formation interprets the realization process from scratch or from underdeveloped to developed. State transformation focuses on the experience and has lessons from "undesirability"to "desirability". State formation has drawn a picture of"external military competition"and"internal financial absorbency", jointly promoting and determining the state boundary and determining relationship between state and society. Through the interaction between the state and society, state transformation illustrates how the financial system and financial regime constitute the driving force of social change, and how they determine the growth mode and development path of the state. There are two dimensions of "instrumental rationality"and "value rationality"in state-building and financial reform, which forms different ways for combination. In the dimension of instrumental rationality, "state"and"finance"are neutral. Whether its power, ability and autonomy are strong or weak, in the dimension of value rationality, they may be subject to those characteristics of traditional state and finance, and may also serve those norms of modern state and finance. We should try to move away from the traditional practice of extracting financial resources and strengthening state capacity by"state defeats society or power suppresses rights". When state-building is brought into the track of"democratic accountability"and"limitation of power by law", the friction cost between state and society can be reduced, and social recognition of the state can be really improved. When fiscal reform is promoted on the basis of "no taxation without representation"(taxation by law) and "no expenditure without public"(budget democracy), the relationship between government and taxpayers can be changed from one-way rule and obedience to two-way contract and cooperation, and taxpayers' obedience and support for taxes and spending is likely to rise.