中国经济改革与法外保护兴起 (The Rise of Extra-Legal Protection During China's Economic Reform)

Chinese Abstract: 黑手党产权保护理论在西方影响甚广，其核心是将“黑手党”（Mafia）定义为：生产、销售和分配私人保护的、特殊的有组织犯罪集团。该学派创始人Diego Gambetta通过对于意大利西西里黑手党的实证研究，成功地诠释了政府失灵与黑手党产生的辩证关系，推导出导致黑手党组织产生和发展的两大因素，即私人保护的需求和供给。沿着Gambetta的脚步，本文结合中国现实，将此类组织归为黑社会（性质）组织的重要组成部分，称其为“法外保护组织”，并详细论述了中国经济改革与法外保护组织兴起的辩证关系。改革开放以来，中国经济实现了由计划经济体制向市场经济体制过渡的重大转变。私有制产权的普遍确立使得民众对于权利保护的需求呈现出几何式增长。然而，中国法律对于产权的含糊界定，转型期中国政府的腐败问题，以及薄弱的司法体系，都使得中国政府不能够为市场主体提供全面、有效和平等的保护。法律保护的缺失形成的权力真空，成为法外保护组织产生的根本原因。在这种情况下，犯罪分子在利益驱动下组成法外保护组织（如地下出警队），经营私人保护业务，在中国经济转轨时期成为政府的替代机构，通过暴力“保护”私有产权。这些黑手党性质组织提供的服务主要包括两大领域：一是帮助企业参与市场竞争和垄断市场，二是“协助”地方政府发展地方经济。English Abstract: The economic theory of the mafia created by Diego Gambetta defines a mafia group as a special type of organized crime group that specializes in producing, selling and distributing private protection. Nevertheless, Chinese scholars and western criminologists have very different understanding of the mafia. In order to avoid confusion, this paper proposes a new term ‘extra-legal protector(s)' which refers to an individual or a group of people specializing in the provision of private protection. Gambetta's theoretical framework focuses on two important aspects directly relating to the birth and development of unlawful protectors, namely a demand for private protection and a supply of the same. In the Post-Mao era, China started its transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market-directed economy by adopting reform and opening-up policies. The widespread creation of property rights has exponentially enlarged the demand for protection. However, property rights are ambiguously defined in the Chinese legal system, and the state is unable and unwilling to provide efficient and sufficient law enforcement mechanisms for needy people because of the rampant corruption of government officials and the weak judicial system. In this case, street gangsters who are interested in the private provision of protection developed into an alternative enforcement mechanism for ‘securing' property rights in China's economic transition. The most important service offered by extra-legal protectors in China is not only to assist business enterprises in monopolizing the market, but also to assist local government in China's economic reform