The Logic Of Local Government's Action In Forging The Leading Industry

The role of local government in economic development has basically reached consensus in the academic community,that is,the local government is an important force in promoting economic development and market-oriented reforms.In the past,the local government action in the market has been discussed in the research from the perspective of motivation,pattern,logic and so on.But the influence of society on government action was always overlooked consciously or unconsciously.Although sociologists have put the government in the social network and discussed the government action in the market from the perspective of the state-society,they are o:ften caught in the trap of static analysis.Here,the action logic of local government is considered as a continuous historical process of dynamic change.Therefore,it is necessary to analyze it in a specific space-time dimension.From the vertical timeline,one action may be not isolated but the beginning or the reason of another action.Moreover,the action of local government is not only constrained by the institutional environment and social networks,but also by historical conditions.Local government action varies from one region to another,even in the same institutional environment.Therefore,it is necessary to analyze the local government's action in the creation of space-time field with a clear boundary.At the same time,many previous studies have focused on successful cases,ignoring the cases of "unsuccessful" or "unfinished"during the process of forging industry,which are more common and realistic.In this paper,the case of Yubei county is one typical example.Since the establishment of New China,the industrial base of Yubei county has been relatively weak.Several state-owned enterprises which were established in the planned economy period were also bankrupt with the reform of the state-owned enterprises in 1990s.Facing such economic difficulties,the county tried a variety of development modes which were mostly failed.In 2008,the government of Henan province launched a plan of industrial agglomeration area,which required all counties to build industrial clusters and develop their leading industries.In this case,the county government has made a decision to set the furniture industry and food industry as the leading industry.The foundation of local furniture manufacturing industry was weak,with only a dozen of small workshops creating desks,chairs,beds and other daily necessities,which had neither scale effect nor brand effect.Industry planning process of argument,however,not only relatively reduces the market risk of Yubei county,but also reduces the political risk.Even though the risk crisis occurred in the course of the building later,the government did not abandon its original long-term goal.However,in different stages of industrial development,the government set different short-term goals.In the initial stage of the furniture industry,the main logic of the large-scale industry is encouraging local enterprises to expand production and importing large scale enterprises.After undergoing a market crisis in the later period,the Yubei County government adjusted the target of the industry to deal with market risks and political risks,and changed it to diversified and medium-sized enterprises.It can be said that,under the superposition of political pressure and economic development,Yubei county government has developed a leading industry by administrative means.This paper analyzs the process of building the leading industry in Yubei County,and tries to find out why the local government made this choice and how to forge the leading industry from the the theory of embeddedness and institutionalism in economic sociology.In this paper,we've analyzed how the local government can create a leading industry in condition of very weak industrial foundations.The Local government has participated in the industry-building process as the main body of action.It has not only formulated specific industrial policies,but also mobilized all kinds of administrative and social resources to support the industry building.At the beginning of the building process,the local government used non-market mechanisms to obtain market information,and set up a linkage mechanism with the market by trade and business.In the later period of rapid development,the local government maintained high administrative efficiency from top to bottom,so that the process from inviting investment to enterprise entering to starting construction has been completed in a very short time.The analysis in this paper shows that the local government's industrial building process is also the process of the integration of political function and economic function of local government.In the early stage of industry building,the local government has experienced the different process from zero to one,from small to large.The local government has always insisted on the initial choices,not changed the development goals even in difficult times,and seized policy opportunities and market opportunities at a later stage to create a good development state.From the initial pursuit of scale agglomeration,to adaptive adjustment to the difficulty period,and to the efficient mobilization of the rapid development period,the action logic of Yubei county government has not only been changed under the influence of autonomy,but also has its inherent stability.As the state-social structure is relatively stable,Yubei county government's action also shows a continuous "uniformity",that is,seeking development and reducing risks.This paper argues that under the same policy background,the local government daring to take risks and overcome the "inertia" to build the leading industry with weak foundations,mainly depends on the local government autonomy and self-determination ability in the process of interacting with the market growing.The local government embedded in the state-society structure controls risks by exerting their own abilities to achieve the set goals.The political and society as the institutional environment elements of the building industry have greatly shaped the local government's action and constantly changed in the interaction with the local government.The Local government is affected by different factors at different stages of the building industry process,and makes different action strategies.But the action logic behind it is based on the development of priority and risk control logic.In the process of building market,the market is feedback to the local government constantly.The Local government accumulates experience in market construction,and creates the market information connection mechanism.In this sense,local government's capacity-building and market construction are mutually shaped.