First, the transition period: this stage can be analyzed from the following three aspects:
First, the establishment and reform of the socialist state-owned economy.
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), due to the victory of the new-democratic revolution, the nature of state power has undergone fundamental changes. Therefore, the people's government took resolute measures to confiscate the national government, the bureaucratic capital of four families and the property of imperialist enterprises in China, and transferred it to a socialist country, thus establishing a socialist state-owned economy, thus grasping the economic lifeline of the country and laying an economic foundation for consolidating the people's political power and restoring the national economy.
In the process of receiving, in order to resume production as soon as possible, most of them adopt the method of "maintaining the original position and salary system". Therefore, these industrial and mining enterprises still retain the decadent bureaucracy of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism and various production technology management systems that oppress workers. From 1950 to 1952, China * * * Production Party carried out democratic and production reforms in urban industrial and mining areas, established the leading position of the working class, established a socialist production management and technology management system, realized the enterprise management of factories and mines and modernized production technology, and played an important role in the recovery and development of the national economy.
Second, adjust and transform capitalist industry and commerce.
Because the national bourgeoisie used to unite with the China Producer Party against imperialism and Chiang Kai-shek, and supported the leadership of China after liberation, and the private capitalist economy accounted for a large proportion in the national economy in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, mobilizing its enthusiasm still played a considerable role in increasing industrial products to meet people's needs, helping commodity circulation to promote urban-rural exchanges, absorbing employees' employment, cultivating technical management talents, and increasing national tax revenue and accumulation. Therefore, China made a reasonable adjustment, which was not conducive to restricting the national economy and people's livelihood, but also conducive to encouraging the development of the national economy and people's livelihood, and gradually brought private industry and commerce into the track of state capitalism, which played an important role in the recovery and development of the national economy in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
1953- 1956 in order to complete the socialist revolution and establish public ownership of the means of production, China * * * Production Party, based on the historical contribution of the national bourgeoisie, its support for the party's leadership, its willingness to accept the transformation and other realistic factors, carried out socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce through the form of state capitalism and the principle of peaceful redemption, and gradually transformed it into a socialist enterprise owned by the whole people. This greatly liberated the productive forces and became one of the main steps in establishing the socialist system.
Third, transform individual handicrafts in cities into socialism and establish a socialist collective economy.
In short, during the transitional period, China established public ownership of the means of production, copied the Soviet model, and formed a highly centralized and unified management of the planned economy system.
Second, the decade of building socialism in an all-round way: this stage has not changed much, and the changes are manifested in two aspects:
First, with the end of the fixed interest rate system, the original capitalist industry and commerce has completely turned into a socialist state-owned economy.
Second, in the people's commune movement, many cities also built people's communes, but most of them existed in name only.
Third, the Cultural Revolution has remained basically unchanged for ten years.
Fourth, the new period of socialist modernization: this period can be divided into two stages:
The first stage, from the 1970s to the early 1990s: the CPC Central Committee correctly summed up the positive and negative experiences and lessons of socialist construction since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially the lessons of the Cultural Revolution, learned from foreign experience, and implemented the basic national policy of reform and opening up at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, so that the single public ownership economy developed into a multi-ownership economy with public ownership as the main body; Adjust the industrial structure, change the highly centralized management system into a management system that focuses on indirect management and macro-control, and separate government from enterprises. This has enhanced the vitality of enterprises, liberated productive forces and made great achievements.
The second stage, from the early 1990s to the present: On the basis of understanding the national conditions and summing up the experience and lessons of socialist construction, the CPC Central Committee decided to accelerate the pace of reform and opening up, deepen the reform of the economic system, put forward the goal of establishing a socialist market economic system, push enterprises to the market, and gradually change from the original extensive management to intensive management. Thereby further liberating and developing the productive forces and laying the foundation for China's economic take-off in 2 1 century.
After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the economic development of China has gone through several stages. In the broad scope of socialist ideology, development follows a certain path, and reform is first and foremost a system change, which plays an important role in liberating productive forces. Although there is a certain degree of path dependence in the reform process, it is characterized by gradual change as a whole, and ingenious institutional adjustment is an important reason to avoid falling into path lock. The reform has entered a critical stage. How to break through path dependence and reform more difficult and complicated links in political economy needs to explore feasible ways of institutional adjustment suitable for China. This paper attempts to explore the influence of institutions on China's economic development and the interactive relationship between institutional adjustment and path dependence.
[Keywords:] economic development, path dependence, lock-in, contribution rate of institutional factors, institutional adjustment
Summary of related theories
Path dependence refers to a system with positive feedback mechanism. Once it is adopted by the system under the influence of external accidents, it will develop and evolve along a certain path, and it is difficult to be replaced by other potential or even better systems. "System is the rules of the game of society. More normatively, they are artificially set constraints to determine people's relationships. This system has built an incentive structure for people to communicate politically, socially or economically. " (North, 1994) This incentive structure will affect or change people's preferences and rational calculations, and then affect people's choices and behaviors, and ultimately affect the results and performance of economic operation. With the changes of population, relative prices of factors, technology and preferences, institutional arrangements will inevitably change accordingly, that is, institutional changes will occur. China's economic reform is an example of institutional change. Many institutional changes are gradual and continuous evolution processes, which are realized through the continuous adjustment of the system on the margin, such as the economic system reform that began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in China. Sometimes drastic and discontinuous institutional changes may occur, such as the "socialist transformation movement" in China's transition period. The system adjustment mentioned in this paper refers to this gradual and continuous evolution.
The path dependence analysis framework is first applied to the path analysis of technological change. Its core idea is that once a technology is adopted due to the influence of accidental events, or has a slight advantage in the competition, it will eventually occupy the market and drive other or even better technologies out of the market. Economic growth is a long-term economic phenomenon that a country's potential production capacity continues to increase on the basis of technological progress, concept renewal and institutional evolution. Effective institutional arrangements are the key to economic growth (Xu Lei, 2003).
New institutional economists initially applied the analysis of technological change to the analysis of enterprise institutional change. On this basis, North and David introduced the concept of path dependence into the analysis of institutional change, and established a general theoretical framework to analyze the path of institutional change and its performance, so as to solve two theoretical problems: "What determines the different social, political or economic evolution modes in history" and "How to explain the long-term survival of those economies with poor economic performance". North believes that the path dependence analysis framework in technological change is essentially to analyze the technology with increasing returns, and the path dependence analysis framework in technological change can also be applied to institutional change. North believes that "there are two forces that will adjust the path of institutional change: one is increasing returns, and the other is determined by the significant transaction cost of incomplete market", and "the idea of incomplete information feedback and prescribed path corrects the subjective model of actors", thus making it difficult for the subject to get rid of the path of non-performance institutional change through behavior modification under the constraint of increasing returns. Therefore, on the one hand, contingency factors and the above two forces determine the diversity of institutional choices and reform paths; On the other hand, due to the existence of transaction costs, a large number of non-performance institutional changes have fallen into a locked state and existed for a long time.
Jerry Hausner, Bob Jessop and others reinterpreted the evolution of the socialist economic system in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with the framework of path dependence analysis. They believe that the establishment of the socialist system in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries is the product of external accidental factors (such as World War I and World War II), and the reason why the planned economy, a non-performance economic system, has existed for a long time and has not been replaced by a performance-based market economic system is that the factors such as increasing returns and transaction costs of the system have formed the path dependence of institutional change, and the sources of increasing returns are mainly the synergistic effect of political system and economic system, the learning and adaptation effect of formal system and social ideology. In addition, they also put forward various suggestions on the transformation and reform plan of the former socialist countries by using the analysis method of exit lock-in state. In their view, because the increasing income of the original path mainly comes from the interdependent network effect of social consciousness and formal system, political system and economic system, the reform should strengthen information dissemination, change informal constraints and social ideology, reduce the increasing income mechanism of the original system through political reform and economic "shock therapy", establish the interactive network effect of the new system, and form a "positive feedback mechanism" for the new system to strengthen itself. At the same time, through the unified command and coordination of the government, privatization is used to reduce path conversion. Harris and North, on the other hand, concentrated on the economic and political transformation of the third world countries, and thought that the establishment of a market economy system was not enough to form a benign self-strengthening mechanism that depended on the path of institutional change. We should also pay attention to the construction of political system and various informal systems, form a self-strengthening mechanism coupled with systems, and make this self-strengthening mechanism embark on a virtuous circle by reducing transaction costs and ensuring the circulation of information.
Using path dependence analysis framework to analyze institutional changes has its limitations, such as inadequate handling of exit lock. In the process of technological change, exiting the locked-in state means recognizing the necessity of government intervention. In the process of institutional change, exiting the locked-in state means thoroughly breaking the old system and quickly forming a new system, but "government intervention" and "revolution" are propositions that liberal economists basically ignore. In addition, they did not fully consider the factors that political interest groups struggled with each other in the process of economic development, but only considered how to break the old system and form the income increase mechanism of the new system.
The institutional change model of North (1994, 1997) is based on the "cost-benefit comparison calculation" of economic man. The motivation of institutional innovation stems from the individual's expectation of maximizing the potential profit of the existing system. The potential external profits are mainly reflected in the internalization of externalities, the sharing of risks and the development of imperfect markets. Potential external profit is one of the main driving forces of institutional change, but it must also be compared with the cost of change. When the potential profit exceeds the expected cost, new institutional arrangements can be produced. Specifically, institutional changes include changes in formal rules and informal rules, that is, marginal adjustments to these rules. Its internal logic is that in the process of competition, the continuous learning and knowledge accumulation of individuals and people promote the development of the organization, and the development of the organization will promote the reform of the system.
Domestic economists' research on path dependence mainly focuses on technological innovation. In terms of institutional change, path dependence theory is mainly used to explain why economic reform is gradual, such as gradually carrying out market-oriented reform to gradually replace the planned economic system, grasping the initial conditions of economic reform, and weighing between speed and stability (Lin Yifu et al., 1993). Some scholars also believe that local breakthrough changes have been taken in the reform process, avoiding the long-term delay and stalemate of simply improving and repairing the old system (Chen Xiaobing, 200 1). At the micro level, there are some detailed discussions on corporate governance structure, the influence of external environment and the role of capital ownership. For example, due to the high degree of public ownership of state-owned enterprises, many levels of principal-agent, the distance between the initial principal and the final agent is far away, and the supervision efficiency is naturally low, so there are phenomena such as asymmetric information, incompatible incentives and unequal responsibilities (Zhang, 1995). Lin Yifu (1997) emphasized that starting from the external environment, enterprises should be relieved of all kinds of burdens and enter the competitive market, and then institutional innovation of internal governance structure should be carried out on this premise. Jian Xinhua's (1998) point of view is that both pay equal attention to each other, complement each other, and cooperate with each other to play the role of encouragement and supervision. Liu (2002) thinks that capital ownership is the premise of effective corporate governance. The corporate governance system has the characteristics of path dependence, which is inseparable from the environment of different countries or enterprises. In a given economic, technological and institutional environment, any form of capital ownership suitable for an enterprise's economic, technological and institutional environment can be effective as long as it is properly arranged. Ask a Question
Development economics and the new institutional school have made a deep research on the influence of institutions on economic development, but there is no convincing result to measure the influence of institutional factors on economic growth from the quantitative point of view. This is one aspect of the problem. On the other hand, the influence of biological "path dependence" on a country's economic development process explains the development phenomena of many countries from a qualitative perspective. How can macroeconomics be liberated from the institutional lock caused by path dependence and constantly evolve to a higher productivity and production efficiency? There is a debate on "induced institutional change" or "mandatory institutional change" in theoretical circles. Institutional adjustment is also an expression of institutional change, and more emphasis is placed on fine-tuning the system rather than drastic changes.
What is the proportion of institutional factors affecting economic growth? This is still an unanswered question. On the other hand, whether there is institutional path dependence, whether the marginal benefits brought by institutional factors show diminishing effect, and how to jump out of this path dependence and make the economy develop new growth points and vitality into a more benign track are important theoretical issues worthy of in-depth consideration.
How to treat the path and path dependence of economic development after the founding of the People's Republic of China
Since the founding of New China, China has been following the road of socialist development, constantly exploring economic infrastructure and economic development within the scope of Marxist ideology. 1949~ 1955, launched the new democratic construction and socialist transformation movement; From 1956 to 1959, he tried to carry out socialist great leap forward development, which directly led to a devastating blow to the national economy in the past three years. After that, there was a brief national economic recovery and a ten-year political movement. Ideological contradictions have seriously affected economic construction. It can be considered that the economic development process of China before 1978 was always caught in the ideological struggle of "capital" or "society". Marxist thought, which once brought victory to China's revolution, did not point out the correct way for the builders of new China to effectively carry out economic construction, but rigid dogma dominated all aspects of national development. The history of this stage conforms to the path dependence theory put forward by North, and the deviation of the initial point of the system further leads to the development path along the incorrect track, and the system and ideology continue to strengthen this process. Although Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and others tried to get rid of this road in the leftist trend of thought, the result was unsuccessful, and China's economy was trapped in an irrational state of low performance.
After 1978, China's economic development started on the basis of avoiding ideological disputes, and put forward that "practice is the only criterion for testing truth", and everything is based on whether people's living standards are improved and whether productivity is developed. This is a complete negation of the path dependence formed by the guiding ideology of "taking class struggle as the key link" Under the premise of not violating the essence of Marxism, in an era when the whole people have hated political movements, the process of economic reform has started from the rural contract responsibility system. Through the urban economic reform and the price dual-track system that does not touch the vested interests, the cognition and expectation of the reform benefits are constantly strengthened, and the incremental economic reform route has gradually become the main track of economic development, forming a "favorable" path dependence for improving productivity in a certain period of time.
The reform has been carried out for more than 20 years, and the incremental reform has almost come to an end. The aspects that can be changed and are easy to change have basically changed. Stock reform is bound to affect many vested interests and cause strong dissatisfaction and conflict among reformers. In addition, various drawbacks in the political system have seriously hindered the further development of economic reform. Avoiding these deep-seated problems in the early stage of reform has not only formed an irreversible reform situation, greatly improved the level of social productivity, but also inevitably brought the influence of path dependence. It seems that incremental reform is necessary, and the stock part cannot be easily touched. The political system can't be touched, otherwise there will be social unrest. Whether these views are correct or not has become the reason why we can't jump out of the existing path lock.
Looking back on the course of China's economic development, every great achievement and sustained high-level economic growth are related to the timely promulgation and implementation of the new economic policy. From building a socialist planned economy to building a market economy in Socialism with Chinese characteristics, it is a process of constantly revising the understanding of reform and opening up, constantly approaching the market economy, constantly fine-tuning and constantly revitalizing the economy. The role of institutional factors in economic development is obviously enormous.
Empirical research results
The understanding of economic growth mode in development economics has developed from the simple model of Harold and Thomas to the endogenous growth model, and the research on production, technological innovation, labor and capital is relatively sufficient. Some scholars have also noticed the influence of institutional factors on economic growth and tried to measure its influence. For example, Shu Yuan and others put forward that China's economic growth follows the AK model, and that institutions have a considerable impact on economic growth (Shu Yuan, Xu Xianxiang, 2000). Zhang Jun has also done some calculations and concluded that the contribution of production technology to China's economic growth is very small (Zhang Jun, 2002), while in the American economy, the total factor productivity with technological innovation as the main body reaches over 80% (Solow, 1965). Some researchers also try to measure the contribution of institutional factors in economic growth, such as 199 1 the contribution rate of various factors in American economic growth by 2000, and think that the contribution rate of institutional innovation is as high as 40%, but it is very small in the following years (Jiang, 2004). After the return of WLS, it was found that during the period of 1980~ 1994, the total contribution rate of institutional and technical factors to China's economic growth was 22.4%, of which institutional factors accounted for the main part (Dr. Dong Xianghai, 2004). On the surface, some research results test the contribution rate of technological progress to economic growth, but they adopt the subdivision method of "direct technological contribution" and "indirect technological contribution". In the latter case, it actually includes the factors of institutional innovation, and it is calculated that the contribution rate of this part to China's economy is much greater than that of direct technology in a period of time (Tan Deqing, 2000). Some scholars select the cross-sectional data of China 1990 and 200 1 from the perspective of the influence of ownership change on physical capital and human capital, and come to the conclusion that the gap of institutional 10% will lead to the gap of economic development level of 8.37%, and at the same time increase the output elasticity of physical capital by 3.7% (Wang Jinying, 2004).
There is a noteworthy achievement in the study of the influence of institutional change on economic growth (Fu, Wu, 2002). A Cobb-Douglas production function, including capital and labor input, technology and institutional variables, Y=AF(T, k, L)=AKαLβIγ, where y stands for output; A represents the growth factors such as technological progress and human capital that have not entered the production function, and we use Solow residual value method to deal with this; K and L represent capital input and labor input respectively; I stands for the variable of institutional change, and measures the influence of institutional change from four aspects: the rate of denationalization (FGYH), the degree of marketization (SCH), the proportion of national fiscal revenue to GDP (CZSR) and the degree of opening to the outside world (DWKF). Calculated from 1978 to 1999, the contribution rate of institutional change in China's economic growth is 35.2778%, which fully illustrates the great role of institutional change in economic growth.
The agricultural economy has developed in an all-round way. Before liberation, due to the shackles of feudal production relations, the city's agricultural productivity was low, water conservancy conditions were poor, and droughts and floods were frequent. Most of the cultivated land is only planted with one season of rice, and the grain yield per mu is 200 kg to 300 kg. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the party and the government led the people to carry out land reform, which completely destroyed the feudal land ownership and realized that the broad masses of farmers "have land to the tiller". Subsequently, relying on the collective strength, we will vigorously strengthen the basic construction of farmland, popularize excellent varieties, rationally plant closely, rationally fertilize, and strengthen the prevention and control of pests and diseases, so that the grain output will continue to increase and the agricultural economy will continue to develop. Especially after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the household contract responsibility system was fully implemented, the industrial structure was vigorously adjusted, and agricultural development and science and technology were highlighted, which effectively promoted the rapid development of rural economy. In the past 56 years, the total grain output in leping city has tripled. Last year, the total grain output was 325,900 tons. The vegetable planting area is 250,000 mu? The total output is 6 1.25 million tons, the output value is 890 million yuan, and it is exported to more than 1 000 cities. Vegetables have quickly become the pillar industry, leading industry and rich industry in this city and countryside. Cotton, oilseeds, livestock, poultry and aquatic products have all increased substantially; Forestry has eliminated barren hills after passing provincial acceptance. Last year, it was rated as an advanced county and city in the province's agricultural development.
Industrial production "draws new pictures with white paper". In old China, the industry in Leping County was basically a blank sheet of paper, with only one coal mine, one small power plant and several small machine rice mills. Ginning and textile are still produced by hand. In 1949, the county's industrial output value was only 6.88 million yuan. Since the 1950s, the state has taken advantage of Leping's resources to build a number of industrial and mining enterprises such as coal mining, manganese mining and power generation. In the 1960s, a number of large and medium-sized pharmaceutical, chemical and machinery enterprises were built, and a number of county and township coal mines were rebuilt and expanded, becoming one of the three major coal-producing bases in Jiangxi. At the same time, county-owned local industries are also developing day by day. After the reform and opening up, Lean River Industrial Park was established with more than 80 enterprises. It has formed five pillar industries such as coal, building materials, medicine, textile and food, and has excellent products from more than 20 countries, departments and provinces such as penicillin, peach crisp, grain wine and pearl rice. In 2005, the city's industrial output value above designated size reached 3.41.70 billion yuan, more than 400 times higher than that of 1.949.
Communications, posts and telecommunications have advanced by leaps and bounds. Before liberation, there was only one highway from Nanchang to Jingdezhen in Leping, which was less than 30 kilometers. At that time, there was only one welcome station, and passenger and cargo transportation mainly relied on wooden sailboats, earth trucks and backpacks. Today, the situation is very different. With the networking of railways and highways, modern means of transportation and convenient transportation, it has developed into a transportation hub in northeast Jiangxi. In addition, urban and township roads and 80% administrative village roads have been hardened and paved with cement or asphalt. There were no cars and motor vehicles in the past, but now it has grown to more than 10000. The average annual passenger traffic of automobiles in this city is 6 million passengers, and the freight volume is 3 million tons. In addition, the post and telecommunications industry has developed from only five telephones walking in the city to postal roads and telephones in every village, with more than14,000 program-controlled telephones and nearly 10,000 mobile phones, and is connected with the whole country and the world.
Urban construction has taken on a new look. Before liberation, Leping County had only four small stone streets in the east, west, south and north, with an area of less than 2 square kilometers and a population of less than 20,000. In the early 1950s, the county party committee and government widened the old West Street, South Street, Nanwai Street and East Street. In the 1960s and 1970s, a large number of new buildings were built, and the main streets were paved with cement. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, especially since 1992, Leping has rebuilt and built streets with a width of 10, including ji yang Road, Weishan Road, Yingbin Road, Anping Road, Bayi Road, Park Road, Huancheng Road, changshou road Road, Xinping Road and Zhuhai Road, and built a large market in northeast Jiangxi. A waterworks with a daily water supply of more than 30,000 tons has been built, and infrastructure construction has been continuously strengthened; More than 2 million square meters of new houses have been built. The tallest new building is the Northeast Jiangxi Power Supply Building, with 22 floors. The urban area has also expanded to 16 square kilometers, the urban population has increased to more than140,000, and the urban green coverage rate has reached 16.5%. 1997 won the "Jiangxi Urban Health Progress Award". Last year, the evaluation of urban environmental quality ranked first among nine county-level cities in the province. The construction of small market towns in rural areas has also changed its face.
Fiscal revenue has increased substantially. In the early days of liberation, Leping's financial income was very small. By 1954, the county's fiscal revenue was only 4 million yuan. In 2005, the city's fiscal revenue reached 400 million yuan, nearly 100 times higher than that in the early days of liberation. As a result, the city's economic strength has been greatly enhanced and it has entered the ranks of the top ten counties and cities in the province. The financial industry has also developed steadily.
Various social undertakings are increasingly prosperous. Before liberation, Leping was an ancient country with an ancient culture, but its social undertakings such as education, culture and health were quite backward. Now it presents a new scene of all-round development: in education, in the early days of liberation, there were only 1 middle schools and 3 complete primary schools in the county. At present, there are 760 schools of various types in the city, with more than 654.38+0.5 million students and more than 7,000 faculty members. Since the resumption of the college entrance examination system, nearly 20,000 outstanding students have been sent to institutions of higher learning and technical secondary schools. Nine-year compulsory education was basically popularized in the whole city, illiteracy among young and middle-aged people was basically eliminated in rural areas, and the "two basics" work successfully passed the provincial acceptance 1996. The construction rate of rural schools above primary school is 80%. Through the implementation of the strategy of "revitalizing the city through science and technology", great achievements have been made in scientific and technological work. There are 27 scientific and technological service institutions in the city, with more than 8,700 scientific and technological professionals. In recent years, a large number of scientific research projects have been implemented and designated as national science and technology demonstration counties (cities). Cultural news, especially radio and television, has made great progress. At present, every household has 1.2 TV sets. Literary and artistic creation is unprecedentedly prosperous, and more than 20 books, such as novels, essays and essays, have been published successively. Medical and health services have developed rapidly. There are six municipal people's hospitals in the urban area, and there are hospitals in every town (field). There are 303/kloc-0 health technicians in the city, and 80% farmers have participated in the cooperative medical insurance. Both urban and rural areas have changed from lack of medical care to rich life, and the average life expectancy has increased from 35 years before liberation to 7 1 year now. In addition, sports developed into national fitness, and Leping was awarded the title of "hometown of martial arts" in China from 65438 to 0996.
People's living standards are getting better and better. Before liberation, Leping rural areas were in a state of self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and most villages were in rags. 30% people live in toilets. After liberation, farmers' life is like "sesame blossoms are rising day by day". Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the living standards of farmers have improved at a faster speed. In 2005, the per capita income of rural residents in the city reached 3,737 yuan, and that of urban residents reached 6,237 yuan, which were more than 50 times higher than 1949 respectively. Color TV sets, refrigerators and tape recorders are gradually entering the homes of ordinary people. Karaoke, motorcycles and even cars have also entered a few families that get rich first. At the same time, people's quality of life has improved significantly. The per capita living area of urban residents is 20 square meters, and the per capita housing area of rural areas is 34 square meters. Savings deposits of urban and rural residents reached 3.9 billion yuan. "Dress beautifully, eat nutritionally, have spacious houses, travel by car, popularize household appliances, send children to school and deposit tickets in the bank" has become the real life of urban and rural people in Leping.
New achievements have been made in spiritual civilization, democracy and the legal system. Over the past 56 years, especially since the reform and opening up, the whole city has actively implemented the policy of building socialist spiritual civilization, and carried out education on the situation, tasks, basic line and national conditions, patriotism and socialist concept of honor and disgrace, as well as social morality, professional ethics and family virtues; In-depth and continuous activities to create civilized cities, civilized villages, civilized units and civilized households have been carried out, advanced technologies have been commended vigorously, and healthy trends have been promoted, which has better formed an atmosphere in which workers love their posts and are dedicated, farmers are hardworking and rich, teachers are enthusiastic about teaching and educating people, and students study hard, and the people's mental outlook has undergone profound changes. The city was rated as 82 provincial, scenic and municipal civilized units and 30 civilized villages; More than 40 people have successively won the honorary titles of National Model Workers, National May 1st Labor Medal Winner, National March 8th Red Flag Bearer and Provincial Model Workers. Advanced figures who are brave and can't hide money are also emerging one after another. At the same time, the city has extensively carried out legal education, implemented comprehensive management of social security, and punished serious criminal and economic criminals according to law. Social order remained stable. 1997 was rated as an advanced county (city) in national legal education and an advanced county (city) in comprehensive management of social security in the whole province. The Public Security Department, the Procurator's Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Traffic Police Brigade were also rated as advanced collectives in the whole country and the whole province respectively.
Looking back at history, we can draw an important conclusion, which is the result of implementing Theory of Three Represents, the correct leadership of the Party and the vanguard and exemplary role of party member.