| Economics generally believes that the market exists alone,but its normal operation may be affected by other factors.In the process of analysis,the market and the government are two separate and opposite concepts.Chinese economists point out that the premise of an effective market is that there is a promising government,and it is mentioned that this is an ideal state.It is considered that as long as the market is effective,the government has no need to intervene.This argument implies the assumption that there are various functions at the beginning of the market,but for some reason some functions are covered,so the government needs to reproduce the covered parts.But economic sociology believes that the market is not operating in a vacuum,but embedded in the various political systems of society,leaving the government can not talk about the market.Economic sociology looks at markets and governments in an evolutionary perspective.It sees the market as a developmental process,and the role of the government is actually to help the market continue to develop new functions and make it more efficient.Economic sociology also believes that an effective market can also have a negative impact.If we simply emphasize the market competition strategy,going to extremes will lead to the formation of monopoly,because competition will inevitably lead to winning or losing,and eventually the big fish will eat small fish.In addition,the market is not omnipotent.Some things cannot be completed simply by relying on the market.This is not a question of whether the market is effective.Therefore,economic sociology emphasizes that state building and market building are complementary processes,and the two are mutually premised.The research object of this dissertation is the economic behavior of the used car market in China from 1985 to 2016 and the process of institutional changes.Compared with Europe,America,Japan,and other countries,China’s used car market started late.The United States first formed the used car market in the 1920s.France,Germany,and Japan basically formed a large-scale used car market and used car trading after World War Ⅱ.China’s used car market started after the reform and opening up.In 1985,the"Beijing Old Motor Vehicle Trading Market" was established at the customs gate outside Zuo’anmen,Beijing.At that time,many newspapers in Beijing and even national newspapers reported on the front page of the official opening of the old motor vehicle trading market because it was a major event during the transition from a planned economy to a market economy.After the reform and opening up,the market economy gradually expanded its share of economic activities,and the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce restored the rural market and urban market in Beijing.Private partnerships,traders,and traffickers in these bazaars need motor vehicles to transport them,but motor vehicles still belong to the unified management and distribution of government material management departments.As a result,there are many old motor vehicle transactions among individuals in the society,parking vehicles on the side of the road.The Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce has discovered these new trends,and found that the prices are chaotic,procedures are incomplete,and the problems affecting the traffic order,especially the huge hidden dangers in the transaction of scrapped vehicles.The Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce believes that the solution is to establish a fixed trading market to place used motor vehicle transactions under the supervision of government departments.Therefore,on April 12,1985,the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce,together with the Beijing Public Security Bureau,The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Materials jointly submitted a report on the establishment of a Beijing old motor vehicle trading market to the municipal government.It is stipulated that after the establishment of the used motor vehicle trading market,regardless of the individual or unit’s old motor vehicle,all old vehicles will be traded in the old motor vehicle trading market.Otherwise,the vehicle management office of the Public Security Bureau will not handle the transfer procedures,and the industrial and commercial administrative department will also impose punishment.After the report was approved by the Beijing Municipal Government,the Beijing Old Motor Vehicle Trading Market was officially opened on July 1,1985.The address of Beijing’s old motor vehicle trading market,which was originally set up,is at the gate outside Zuo’anmen,Beijing,covering an area of about 15,000 square meters,sharing a piece of land with the market for the means of production at the time.In order to manage this market,the Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce has established a old motor vehicle market management office,and dispatched cadres who are familiar with market transactions to the on-site management office.The semimonthly Journal of Industrial and Commercial Administration on May 15,1986 published an article "Beijing’s old motor vehicle trading market is active in trading",which has greatly affected the industrial and commercial administrations in various provinces and cities across the country.Relevant departments in many provinces specially sent people to visit.After returning to the country,many old motor vehicle trading markets have been established successively.By 1998,the Ministry of Internal Trade(later changed to the Ministry of Commerce)promulgated the "Old Motor Vehicle Transactions Management Measures",which established that used vehicle transactions in each region must be conducted at a fixed place called "old motor vehicle trading center".The "Old Motor Vehicle Trading Center" institution has established a dominant position in the used car market.driven by car manufacturers,authorized dealers,and other stakeholders,the Ministry of Commerce revised and issued the "Used Vehicle Circulation Management Measures"in 2005,abolishing the regulations that used vehicle transactions must be conducted at old motor vehicle trading centers,thus the used car market included new stakeholders.In 2011,Beijing’s limit on new car license plates led to the rise of used car e-commerce.A large number of used cars from Beijing went out to other provinces for transfer transactions.The structure of the used car market shifted from pure local transactions to the mix of local and off-site transfer transactions.In 2013,local governments around the country adopted restrictions on the relocation of used cars,and local governments became important policy makers in the used car market.In 2016,the State Council issued an opinion on removing restrictions on relocation of used cars.The used car market has been ups and downs from 1985 to 2016 under the influence of policy changes,and stakeholders have continued to expand.The above concerns the relationship between the state and the market.Institutional change has its specific evolutionary path.Due to the influence of institutionalized relationships,government scale and other factors,the process of institutional change can be embodied through the deduction of institutionalized relationships.Based on the study of the relationship between the state and the market,this dissertation attempts to analyze the evolving path of the "old motor vehicle trading center" institution in the used car market in China,revealing the logical clue between political work and institutional change.In order to avoid the normative-empirical analysis mode,this study introduced an institutionalized relationship variable between institutional change and political work,and discussed the relationship between the three variables of institutional change,institutionalized relationship,and political work in order to make the analysis more reasonable.The problem can be decomposed into two aspects:first,how the institutionalized relationships in the used car market are changed and formed;and second,how the automotive industry changes due to this.In the 1980s,the change from the spontaneous formation of "road markets" for old motor vehicles to "old motor vehicle trading market" for fixed locations was also a process of institutional formation.The process of the formation of this institution can be called the institutionalization process,which completes its shaping process through four stages:1)Company status or problem.The operators of the individual bazaars have the legitimacy of buying used cars as a means of transportation.This demand cannot be met in a planned economy system,and second-hand car transactions between individuals occur.2)Collective problem.When many operators and traffickers respond to the same demand,the demand for motor vehicles by goods operators in the bazaar market becomes a "collective problem." The spontaneous "road market" was created at this stage.3)Public problem.The Administration for Industry and Commerce intervened in this process and pointed out the hidden dangers of scrapped cars,traffic jams,and price confusion in the "road market",and jointly submitted a report to the Beijing Municipal Government with the Public Security Bureau and the Material Bureau to initiate the establishment of an old motor vehicle trading market.4)Politicized problem.The Beijing Municipal Government approved the establishment of a old motor vehicle trading market,and local and national media reported one after another.The used motor vehicle trading centers have been imitated and established throughout the country.It can be said that this is a typical industrial institutionalization process,and the relationship between the state and the market is restructured during the institutionalization process.An industrial institution that originated in a market economy has undergone a transition from company status or problem to collective problem,public problem,and politicized problem.The state has withdrawn from indepth control of industrial activities and has become a participant and supervisor of the institutionalization process.This is a brand-new form of state-market relations.It is built on the continuous promotion of political work,and has formed a new type of interaction between market building and state building.It is the transformation of the original "overall society".From the establishment of the old motor vehicle trading centre in 1985 by the administrative department of Beijing to the establishment of the "Old Motor Vehicle Transaction Management Measures" through the Ministry of Internal Trade(later changed to the Ministry of Commerce)in 1998,the old motor vehicle trading centre was established as a formal institution.Then in 2005,the Ministry of Commerce promulgated the "Used Vehicle Circulation Management Measures" to break the monopoly position of the old motor vehicle trading centre in the used car market.In 2011,the rise of used car e-commerce,and in 2013 the used car restriction policy swept across the country.Finally,in 2016,Central Government issued "Several Opinions on the Promotion of the Convenience Transactions of Used Cars",the Chinese used car market has experienced ups and downs in policy changes for more than 30 years.Along with policy changes,China’s used car industry has also experienced the processes of institutionalization,de-institutionalization,and re-institutionalization.In the initial stage of industrial institutionalization,the state played a central role as an organization and power distribution subject.The elite actors under the state structure created the old motor vehicle trading centre under the impetus of value change and functional demand.During this period,China’s planned economic system still dominated.The state,as an organization deepened in all aspects of social life and industrial activities.The operating entity of the old motor vehicle trading centre was the state’s dispatching agency in local government departments.With the implementation of the "Used Vehicle Circulation Management Measures" in 2005,the simultaneous two-way movement is the contraction of the state as an organization in industrial activities,and this is a top-down initiative.The discussion of values preceded policy choices.As the supervisory body of economic activities,the government departments should take the initiative to withdraw from the operation of economic entities.It is the central assertion of the socialist market economy at that time.As a result,China’s used car market has entered a stage dominated by industrial actors.However,due to the existence of institutional inertia and path dependence,the subsequent brand certification of used cars,the chain used cars,used car auction business can not compete with the old motor vehicle trading centre.Resources,venues,talent,capital,and policy preferences are still locked in the regime of the old motor vehicle trading centre.Until the macro-trend environment changed,the digital economy widely established in China.The talents,financial capital,and resources accumulated in the digital economy are enough to launch an attempt to change the institutional order of the used car market.At this time,the policy of limiting the number of new car licenses per year in major cities in 2011 became the clarion call for this alternative attempt.China’s used car e-commerce has risen.Used car e-commerce companies that are entirely different from the institutionalized relationships of the old motor vehicle trading centre try to replace the former as the dominant system in the used car market,thus changing the institutional order of the entire used car industry in China.This process demonstrated the active contraction of the state structure in industrial development.It revealed the tremendous changes that have taken place in China’s institutional arrangements and political system during the 40 years of reform and opening up.Although China’s central and local governments still can influence the social and economic structure,the actors in the industry have become more durable under the guidance of the values of the socialist market economy.The synergy of industrial actor strategies has the power to change the IO in the industry.In 2013,the used car restriction policy across the country began with the local governments’ rational calculation of economic and environmental indicators,which determined that the inflow of used cars was "troublesome".Therefore,the relevant departments of the local governments have established a city wall to prevent "trouble" inflows by changing the technical indicators of used vehicle exhaust emissions.As an organization within the main body of the state,the local government also has its autonomy.It will act according to the value of society,economy and culture,and then become the main body of will in economic and social activities.However,the rational choices made by most local governments based on their interests have produced negative externalities.The development of the used car industry has fallen into a predicament,which in turn has affected the pace of renewal of the entire automobile industry.In the industrial supervision,the central government must not only create uniform industrial regulations and production standards,but also face the externalities spilt by local governments’local regulations,and timely adjust and reset the entire industry.The study of the industry provides a means to link the process of regulation,industrial structure,and legitimation.The key to the study of the institutionalization process is to explore what we call "political work".Institutionalization in industry develops,maintains,or loses faith in the usefulness and "dignity" of the institution through political work.This kind of political work does not only refer to the occasional lobbying and appealing process,but more often,it is the daily activity in the industry.It is also a place that historical institutionalism often overlooks,that is,the "public problem" on which the targeted policy instruments generated in collective action,that is,its definition.Another aspect is the process of politicization of the "public problem",the process of legitimation,and the policy instruments it generates.Regardless of whether the local governments borrowed the concept of environmental protection when introducing the used car restriction policy in 2013,or the stakeholders of the used car industry appealed for the cancellation of the used car restriction policy borrowed the values of industrial development,these political works is a shaping of the definition of this "public problem" itself.This approach considers that such decisions are the cumulative product of compromises on the definitions of social issues held by the practitioners concerned.In other words,the starting point for analysis is that collective,and public ’problems’ are constructed through negotiation,compromise and,more often than not,conflict.Building upon these points of a general theory,our research on the industry is centred upon the political work that takes place within the multitude of arenas and processes which together contribute to the definition of collective,public and political problems.After the argument,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)State building and market building complement each other as a premise.Among them,the process of"problematization" promotes industrial regulatory intervention,and secondly,state building anchors the market insitutitional order.As the theory of institutionalism reveals,the market is not in a vacuum.The state builds an order for the market institution to anchor and supervise industrial supervision with bottom-up appeals through the process of "problematization",thereby forming the authority and dignity of supervision.(2)The subaltern system is difficult to challenge the dominant regime of the "old motor vehicle trading center",the used car market is more likely to become dominant adaptation,and the niche system is more difficult to replace.The dominant regime in the used car market is the“old motor vehicle trading center" system,around which a manufacturer’s brand-certified used car,used car chain dealers,and used car auction companies are formed.It is difficult for the niche system to replace the dominant system in the short term.(3)"Technical governance" widely exists in the industry,the tools of technology are "scientific indicators" and "efficiency indicators",and the public discussion of values is generally lacking.Technical governance restricts industrial governance to experts and insiders,and the public discussion of values is precisely to include both the public and stakeholders in the decision-making process,which is also the process of mobilization.(4)Scale of Government determines the use of policy instruments.Local governments use "technical governance" to supervise industries,and the central government relies on cross-industry rules to regulate the market.The critical government level in used car policy decisions is in prefecture-level cities.The means of technical governance are generally used to supervise industries at this level.The central government needs to regulate the governance of industries by local governments,and cross-industry rules are appropriate policy instrument.Governing economic activity is both "vertical" and "horizontal".It is vertical because many of its institutions are industry-specific(such as automotive industry sourcing rules).However,the governing of economic practices is also horizontal as it is an institution that spans a range of industries(such as competition policy).In fact,stakeholders within an industry often try to escape from the TIR and seek derogation or exemption,either ally themselves with the TIR and its implications.Although this article uses a variety of research methods,including qualitative interviews,participatory observations,etc.However,in essence,there is still a lack of a large amount of first-hand information,and many cases and dialogues are still reported by the news media,which faces the problem of deviations that may arise from secondary processing.Among them,it is very likely that the individual problems faced in the study of the media and others will rise to the group and even the overall deviation.For the case studies of social sciences,the ultimate goal is to get out of the case and seek general principles or general conclusions beyond the case.The representativeness of such cases has also been debated and questioned by scholars.Cases are different from samples in the sense of probability and cannot be inferred as a whole.The behavioral logic of the stakeholders in the industrial activities deduced from the individual cases cannot be exactly equal to the behavioral logic of all the stakeholders in the whole.How to rise from a case to a more precise whole is a question that this research still needs to face carefully and keep thinking. |
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