The Plight Of China's Official Car Reform Path Chosen

Reform on official vehicle-using system has become a hot issue that arouses great concern in today's society. People hold different opinions on whether or not reform should be conducted. With ambiguity in mind, some local governments are hesitant on reform efforts. Comparing official vehicle-using system in China and other countries as well as in different periods of times, the paper shows deficits in Chinese official vehicle-using system and their unsatisfactory consequences. And, in the context of social market economy reform, political democracy movement and anti-corruption move, the paper illustrates necessity and urgency for reform on official vehicle-using system.Early in late 1980s, local governments began their hard exploration on reform of official vehicle-using system. After experiencing self-exploration and organized promotion stages, the reform has spread from its trial basis to a larger scale. The reform result in three operation modes and they are standardized mode, half-monetary mode and monetary mode. In view of new institutional economics, the essay gives comparison analysis of three modes, showing that each mode has its own advantages and disadvantages. Monetary mode turns out to be a relatively cost-effective one in term of institutional change and will inevitably become the choice of reform path. But, monetary mode, as an institutional change, is not easily put in place. Instead, it causes wide disbelief. The paper shows that this phenomenon derives from strong path dependence and gives an analysis of causes for path dependence.To make clear problems existing in reform on official vehicle-using system and their root causes, the essay makes empirical analysis by taking such reform in Changzhou of Jiangshu province as an example. The reform in Changzhou, starting from 2003, has completed both on city-level and district-level. City-level departments maintain old official vehicle-using mechanism except taxation bureau as a trial base for reform. The reform can be described as monetary mode, specified in "position subsidiary plus vehicle rent", "position subsidiary plus vehicle purchase subsidiary" and "position subsidiary plus paid vehicle use". Comparison analysis of three vehicle use modes is given. Besides, in view of new institutional economics, the paper illustrates their deficits from aspects of institutional change and its main body, approaches, causes and direction.Based on above analysis, the author puts forward policy suggestions on reform of official vehicle-using system including defining main body of institutional change, reducing cost of institutional change, getting rid dependence on institutional change and creating a favorable atmosphere for institutional change.