Traditional Culture, Endogenous Compliance, and Fiscal Governance in Contemporary China

The effective realization of national governance efficacy is not only dependent on top-down bureaucratic structures and rigorously defined legal regulations but also deeply influenced by the cultural factors, such as values and behavioral norms embedded in the governance process. Integrating traditional culture into fiscal governance can generate moral guidance, enhance the voluntary identification of actors, transform exogenous instrumental compliance into endogenous voluntary compliance, thereby achieving endogenous compliance in governance. Through creative transformation and innovative development, fine traditional Chinese culture embeds shared values into governance rules, shaping fiscal governance with Chinese characteristics. This process is realized primarily through three pathways: First, traditional culture and modern governance have mutually integrated in terms of symbol system and discourse system, spontaneously generating governance authority symbols that encompass both traditional connotations and modern extensions, providing a value foundation for fiscal governance. Second, traditional culture internalizes individual behaviors into collective interests through moral norms and value guidance, fosters public voluntary support and adherence to fiscal reforms and legal regulations, and thus creates a conducive environment for orderly compliance. Third, traditional culture consolidates collective willpower, enables organizational mobilization and resource integration in critical areas, and forms the system for mobilizing the resources nationwide. Approaching from the perspective of traditional culture and endogenous compliance, it may provide new ideas for analyzing fiscal governance innovations in contemporary China, and provide new academic reference for the construction of fiscal theory with Chinese characteristics.