Sunan Small Towns Under The Perspective Of Institutional Innovation For Sustainable Development

The development of small towns is a major issue in southern Jiangsu Province, which is directly related to the process of urbanization, the development of agriculture & country and the sustainable development of regional economy. Based on the excess increase of population, the shortage of resources, the pollution of environment and the degeneration of ecosystem, small towns in southern Jiangsu Province must follow the route of sustainable development. The absence of institutional arrangement is an important reason to unsustainable development of some small towns in southern Jiangsu Province. The essential institutional arrangement and the institutional innovation have the vital significance to small towns sustainable development in the southern Jiangsu Province. Institutional innovation is choosing a new institution which is able effectively to reduce transaction cost in small towns' development, can promote the sustainable development of small towns. We recognize the role of the government in institutional innovation, need the government to promote institutional innovation.The paper begins with defining the basic concepts related to sustainable development of small towns, obtains from the fundamental theory, reviews and comments economy literature for the sustainable development on overseas cities (domestic small towns). Then, we discuss current situation and problems of small town in southern Jiangsu Province, carry on the institutional evolution analysis to the development path, evaluate the sustainable development of small towns, and thoroughly excavate the institutional causes on the unsustainable development of some small towns in southern Jiangsu Province. Thereby, we discuss sustainable development problems of small town from the institutional innovation angle. We believe that, in order to realize the sustainable development of small towns in southern Jiangsu province, we need to innovate the system of government itself, to transform the government function, to change the political achievements, and need to innovate other related institutions. We attempt to establish sustainable development pattern of small towns based on institutional innovation in southern Jiangsu province. Finally, Through a case study of Zhouzhuang town in Kunshan city Jiangsu province, we calculate and analyze the sustainable development of Zhouzhuang town with the ecological footprint model. And some suggestions on sustainable development of other small towns in southern Jiangsu Province are proposed base on zhouzhuang pattern.