美国的金融危机和欧洲的债务危机促使国际社会开展了对资本主义的反思，《经济学家》和《金融时报》等多家媒体连续发表学者和意见领袖的重磅文章，探讨资本主义的问题及其发展未来。一些人倾向认为，此轮金融和债务危机是周期性现象，资本主义本身具有足够的灵活性对此进行调整；另一些人则认为，危机是资本主义本身无法解决的结构性问题，必须对资本主义进行彻底的改造才能根除危机。在中国国内，对资本主义的反思导致了两方面的意见分野。一些人认为，资本主义的危机显示了政府主导模式的优势；另一些人则认为，资本主义的危机是局部的，主要是美式资本主义和福利社会的危机。对资本主义未来的讨论关系到中国下个十年的走向，也关系到世界经济体系向何处去的问题。在这个背景下，本届北京论坛经济学分论坛将以“反思资本主义”为题。
具体地，分论坛包括以下三个子议题：
（1） 美国金融危机和欧债危机再认识
本议题的目的不是讨论这两个危机为什么和如何发生，而是从反思资本主义的高度重新认识这两场危机，着重回答下面的问题：两场危机反映的是周期性现象还是资本主义的结构性问题？民主制度和资本主义之间是否存在天然的冲突？
（2） 资本主义的问题
在本议题下，论坛将讨论全球化视角下资本主义所面临的挑战。资本主义如何继续创新？新兴经济体对旧有的世界格局形成冲击，全球资本主义体系是否能够吸纳这个冲击？资本主义如何应对各国内部和世界范围内增长的不平等？气候变化会改变资本主义的组织形态吗？
（3） 替代方案
本议题的目的是讨论对资本主义的改进方案。资本主义是唯一的制度吗？社会主义过时了吗？中国的实践创造了新的经济形态吗？资本主义的出路在哪里？
2012 Beijing Forum
Economics Sub-forum
Rethinking Capitalism in the Post-crisis World
The subprime-loan crisis and the Euro crisis have led world communities to rethink the variability of capitalism. Both The Economist and Financial Times have run series of articles that try to address the problems of capitalism and issues surrounding its future. While some people, noticeably professional economists, tend to believe that the crises were results of business cycles and thus can be addressed by the conventional anti-cyclical measures, other people hold that the crises were structural to capitalism and cannot be fully addressed by capitalism in its current form. In China, rethinking capitalism has led to two divergent views about economic governance. One of them believes that the crises have shown the weaknesses of free market and reflected the advantages of the government-dominant model while the other view believes that the crises are local, mainly reflecting the problems of the American version of capitalism and the welfare state. The discussion of capitalism, therefore, bears implications for China as well as shaping the direction that the world capitalism heads toward in the future. Against this background, this year’s economics sub-forum of the Beijing Forum will be devoted to the theme of rethinking capitalism in the post-crisis world. Specifically, the sub-forum will focus on three topics.
(1) Rethinking the causes of the crises
The purpose of this topic is not to find out how the subprime-loan crisis and the Euro crisis have happened; rather, it is to revisit those two crises from the perspective of rethinking capitalism. In particular, the discussion is aimed at answering the following two questions: were those two crises cyclical phenomena or structural to capitalism? Do democracy and capitalism have the natural tendency to conflict each other?
(2) Challenges to capitalism in a globalized world
The discussion under this topic is aimed at identifying and attacking the challenges that capitalism faces in a globalized world. The emerging economies have sent shock waves to the current world system. Is the global capitalist system capable of absorbing those shocks? How can capitalism continue to innovate? How will it respond to the enlarging inequality both within and among countries? Will climate change force capitalism to change its organizational modes of production, distribution, and governance?
(3) Alternatives to capitalism
Is capitalism the only form of economic governance? Is socialism obsolete? Are there any middle forms between capitalism and socialism? Has China created a new form of economic governance? What is the future of capitalism?
