Government Self-interest In The Land Acquisition Behavior Analysis And Governance

With the rapid development of economic and urbanization in China, local governments have been expropriated huge rural collective land for economic and city construction .It is well known that land is the fundamental property for the living of peasants, it will seriously damage the interests of peasants if the actions of land expropriation is not legal and reasonable .Unfortunately ,the land expropriation system which originated in the era of the planned economy is out of date , it owns several obvious limitations, especially on the purpose of land expropriation , the confines of land expropriation , and the principles and standards of compensation . The local governments have expropriated huge land through terribly low price by taking advantage of the faults of system , then they have resell land to factories or other social organizations by high price .This action seriously damages the interests of peasants ,and causes the conflicts between peasants and government, influences the stability of society .This paper uses Public choice theory as analysis tool, pointing out that government and its officials are also "economic person " , they own their interests and actively pursue to get hold of it. The paper analysis the selfish behaviors of local governments in land expropriation, introducing and contenting the phenomena of spontaneous flow of rural collective land into illegal land markets, which are caused by the selfish behaviors of government in land expropriation .In the last part , the paper suggests to reconstruct the land expropriation system of China in the following way. Firstly , exactly defining the meaning of "public interest " and the confine of land expropriation in laws and systems ; prescribing that government only has the right to expropriate land for public interest and compensate peasants in proper price . Secondly , allowing peasants to take part in the progress of land expropriation .Thirdly, allowing land transaction in market under the rule of laws. Lastly, the law clearly grants the supervised rights to government in land markets.