中国基础教育的发展，自新中国成立以来，取得了重大进展。无论是从适龄儿童入学率，还是从教学质量与教学条件方面讲，都有了长足的发展。然而，这种从自身纵向比较得出的重大进步，与横向的国际比较所得出的结论，存在重大差异。即使仅仅与发展中国家的基础教育发展水平相比较，中国的基础教育也存在诸多问题，更不要说与发达国家的基础教育比较了。事实上，无论与国际的横向比较，还是从自身的纵向比较，中国基础教育一直面临的重大问题，是发展不均衡的问题。基础教育发展不均衡有多种涵义。本研究主要以基础教育的需求与供给间的不均衡为核心内容，分析其长期存在的社会政治、经济方面的原因。基础教育需求与供给间的不均衡，是中国基础教育不均衡其他方面涵义的一个整体表现，是其他方面涵义的不均衡的一种充分统计量，因而研究这种不均衡的社会经济原因，也就能够从根本上解释其他不均衡产生的原因。这就是本研究选取基础教育需求与供给不均衡作为研究内容的原因所在。本研究的基本观点是，基础教育作为一个系统是一个开放的系统因而基础教育发展是其环境作用的自然结果（Scott and Meyer 1984; Weick 1976）。基于这一逻辑，基础教育面临的问题只能从其存在于其中的环境的角度加以解释。不同的环境形成不同的基础教育发展结果。当基础教育发展结果不能令人满意时，实际上是影响基础教育发展的环境不适应基础教育发展成为人们所期望的那种结果。本研究并不试图回答基础教育面临的所有问题，而是在于解释与说明，基础教育面临的制度环境决定着基础教育满足社会需求的程度或实现社会所期望的那种状态的程度。本研究主要以国内外相关研究文献为基础，从相关制度安排之间的嵌入关系的角度，解释中国基础教育面临的这些问题。本研究在理性选择理论的框架下，运用实证性分析方法与分析性叙述方法，从制度间的嵌入性的角度，探讨了中国基础教育的政策偏好及其影响因素与机制，论述了地方政府官员的晋升锦标制度对基础教育财政投入的挤出效应。本研究在论述公共政策显示性偏好以及相关理论性结论时，都提供了经验性的统计证据。本研究的创新主要体现在如下三个方面。一是运用制度间嵌入性的视角分析与解释中国基础教育供需矛盾问题。二是运用显示性偏好原理，试图实证地论述中国基础教育发展的显示性政策偏好。三是运用分析性叙述（analytic narratives）方法进行研究。分析性叙述方法是一种近年来在国外较为流行的分析方法，本研究在这方面虽然仅仅是一个尝试，并且仅仅进行了一个初步的运用，但毕竟开始了一种新的探索。由于利用理性选择理论并运用分析性叙述方法研究中国基础教育问题，是一个初步的尝试，因而，必然存在众多缺点与不足。本研究存在的缺点与不足主要体现在如下三个方面。一是制度嵌入性的论述中，仅仅论述了地方政府官员晋升锦标赛制度对基础教育财政投入的挤出效应，而没有研究其他方面的制度安排对基础教育发展的影响。二是对地方政府的基础教育政策偏好的影响因素与形成机制没有进行更为深入的解释。三是在构建形式化理论模型方面还不够完善。本研究仅仅运用了一些简单的博弈模型，而没有就影响中国基础教育政策偏好以及制度嵌入关系构建统一的形式化模型，这也将成为本研究进一步研究的重点与方向。

China’s basic education has made a great progress either on the enrollment rate of the children of right age, or on the teaching quality and teaching conditions since the new P.R.C. established. However, the conclusions that made from comparison with itself at different time and from comparison with the international counterpart are of great difference. China’s basic education faces with kinds of problem even compared with those of developing countries, not to mention those of the developed countries. In fact, the most important problem that China’s basic education has always dealt with is imbalance in development. There are many kinds of connotations for the imbalance in development of the basic education. This research focuses on the imbalance of the supply and demand of the basic education, and analyzes the long-term reason that existed behind the social politics and economics in the meantime. The imbalance of the supply and demand of the basic education is an overall performance of the other kinds of connotations for the imbalance in China’s basic education. It is a sufficient statistical measurement of the other connotations for the imbalance in the basic education. Therefore, the reason that causes other kinds of imbalance can be fundamentally interpreted by analyzing the social political reason of the imbalance of the supply and demand of the basic education. That is why the imbalance of the supply and demand of the basic education is chosen for the research.The fundamental point of the research is that the development of the basic education is the natural result of the environment（Scott and Meyer 1984; Weick 1976）, as the system of the basic education is an open system. Based on this logic, the problem that the basic education has faced with can not be explained but from the view of the environment that the basic education exists. Different environment results in different development of the basic education. When the development of the basic education is not pleasing, it is because the environment that acts on the basic education is not fit for the development of the basic education that peoples are willing to see. This research doesn’t try to answer all the questions that the basic education faces with, but aim to explain that, it is the system environment around the basic education that determine the degree of the basic education fulfilling the social requirement or the expected situation. The research which is based on the research documents at home and abroad, interprets those problems that China’s basic education faced with from the view of the embedded relationship of the related systems. The research which is framed with the theory of rational choice, applies the positive analysis and analytic narratives method to discuss the political preference of the basic education and its influence factor and mechanism, to expose the crowding-out effect that the promotion tournament of local government officials taking on the financial input of the basic education from the view of the embedded relationship of the systems. The research also provides the empirical statistical evidence when discussing the revealed preference of the public policy and the related theoretical conclusions.Firstly, it analyzed and interpreted the contradiction between the supply and demand of the China’s basic education from the view of the embeddability of the systems. Secondly, it tried to demonstrate the revealed political preference of the development of China’s basic education by the theory of the revealed preference. Finally, it applied the method of analytic narratives to carry out the research work. Although the method of analytic narratives which is very popular abroad recently is tried to put into a preliminary use in this research, it is the beginning of a whole new exploration.As it is a preliminary attempt to research the topics of China’s basic education by applying the theory of rational choice and the analytic narratives method, a number of flaw in the research would been shown up inevitably, of which main three are listed below :First, only the crowding-out effect that the promotion tournament of local government officials taking on the financial input of the basic education is discussed when the embedded relationship of the system is discussed. The impact of the other system arrangement on the development of basic education is ignored.Second, a in-depth explanation about the influence factor and mechanism of political preference of the local government on the basic education is not made.Third, it is not enough in framing the theoretical model of formalization. Some simple game models are used in the research. However, a uniform formalization model of China’s basic education and the embedded relationship of the system that is no time to built in this research will be the key point and the route sign in the next step.