使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用
2013年11月召开的中共十八届三中全会提出，使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用和更好发挥政府作用。市场决定资源配置是市场经济的一般规律，健全社会主义市场经济体制必须遵循这条规律，着力解决市场体系不完善、政府干预过多和监管不到位问题，推动资源配置依据市场机制实现效益最大化和效率最优化。做出“使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用”的定位，是对此前沿用20多年的“基础性作用”这一提法的继承和发展，有利于在全党全社会树立关于政府和市场关系的正确观念，有利于转变经济发展方式，有利于转变政府职能，有利于抑制消极腐败现象。当然，巿场这只“无形的手”又是一条“无情的鞭子”，在使整个社会经济活动形成你追我赶、奋勇争先的同时，也会由于其自发性、盲目性带来市场失灵，需要政府这只“有形的手”来发挥作用，政府的职责和作用主要是保持宏观经济稳定，加强和优化公共服务，保障公平竞争，加强市场监管，维护市场秩序，推动可持续发展，促进共同富裕，弥补市场失灵。
Enabling the Market to Play a Decisive Role in Resource Allocation and Making the Government's Role More Effective
At the Third Plenary Session of its 18th National Congress held in November, 2013, the CPC stated that the market should play a decisive role in resource allocation, and that the government should play a more effective role. Letting the market determine resource allocation is a general rule of economics, and the perfecting refining of a socialist market economy must abide by this rule. We must work to address such problems as the imperfections in the market system, excessive government interventions, and supervision that falls short; we must maximize benefits and optimize efficiency by promoting mechanisms which rely on the market to allocate resources.
The idea of letting the market play a decisive role in resource allocation is a continuation and extension of the concept of letting it play a "fundamental role", a concept which had been used for the previous 20 years. This new formulation helps the entire Party and entire society to correctly understand the relationship between the government and the market; it helps transform the mode of economic development; it helps transform government functions; and it helps constrain negativity and corruption.
The market is, of course, an "invisible hand" as well as a "merciless whip". It creates competition and initiative in socioeconomic activities, but at the same time, its spontaneity and blindness can result in market failures, making it necessary for the government's "visible hand" to play a role. The government's responsibility and function are primarily to maintain macroeconomic stability, to improve and optimize public services, to ensure fair competition, to strengthen market oversight, and to maintain market order, to foster sustainable development, and to promote joint prosperity, thereby compensating for market failures.