Abstract:Faced with the epochal proposition posed by the high-quality development strategy, China’s administrative law has progressively transcended the conventional logical position of restraining power in the process of improving business environment and fostering emerging industries, and, through the integration and restructuring of administrative capabilities, now plays a pivotal role in shaping the relationships between the government and enterprises, facilitating the circulation of information, optimizing industrial upgrading, and conducting performance evaluations, thus demonstrating increasingly apparent characteristics of developmentalism. The effective integration of the theoretical paradigm of developmental state with Chinese practice has given rise to the concept of development-oriented administrative law, a distinctive framework embodying Chinese characteristics. The core elements of development-oriented administrative law has three dimensions: focusing on the government’s developmental functions as the center of adjustment to align with the fundamental goal of high-quality development; coordinating the dual values of formal legality and developmental effectiveness, thereby emphasizing the forward-looking attributes and proactive efficacy of government guidance tools and developmental mechanisms; and adopting a systemic perspective as guidance to orchestrate the balance between economic and non-economic systems. Based on current practice, the institutional framework of China’s development-oriented administrative law can be characterized by four core features: attaching importance to building information-based administrative capacity to solidify the foundational guarantees for development; focusing on institutional design of professional bureaucratic systems and internal administration to optimize organizational operations; stressing an effectiveness orientation of administrative law to strengthen the normative function of performance evaluation; and balancing economic efficiency with non-economic values to align with the diverse value demands of high-quality development.

Keywords: high-quality development, development-oriented rule of law, the new development concept, new quality productive forces, business environment, active government

 

Author:Lu Chao, research fellow, CASS Institute of Law;

Source: 6 (2025) Chinese Journal of Law.