中文摘要：

近年来，在各级政府的大力推动下，保障房实物数量以惊人的速度增长，而与此形成反差的是体系的建设、管理和运营出现了诸多问题，同时社会效果也不尽如人意。回顾过去20年间．中国保障房体系经历了酝酿、平淡、高潮、调整四个时期，整个演化过程呈现出组织方式松散、政策目标过多、建设经验难以制度化、功能定位模糊等特征，这些特征是没有廓清思路的表现。因为无论是在建设大面积铺开之前还是之后，政府都没有对“什么是保障房”、“为什么建保障房”、“它有什么作用”等基本问题进行充分论证。因此建议，除了在技术层面上完善具体制度设计之外，还要使政府认清保障房的性质，厘清市场与政府的关系，明确中央与地方的责任分配，并以此为基础发展出一以贯之的政策理念，为构建高效、公平、可持续的保障房体系铺平道路。

英文摘要：

Thanks to the great efforts of policymakers at all levels, in recent years the physical quantity of affordable houses has been increasing at an alarming rate. In stark contrast, however, many problems have come up with the construction, management and operation of the affordable housing system, and its social effects are not satisfying. In the past 20 years, China＇s affordable housing system has experienced four periods of gestation, regular development, climax, and adjustment. Throughout the course of evolution, there appear such problems and characteristics as loose organization, too many policy goals, difficult institutionalization of construction experience, and vague function definition. All these characteristics can be attributed to lack of a clear understanding of affordable housing as there is not sufficient research into ＂what is affordable housing＂, ＂why to construct affordable housing＂, and ＂what impacts affordable housing has＂ before and after large-scale construction. Therefore, apart from perfecting specific system designs at technological level, this paper suggests the government has to further understand the nature of affordable housing, straighten out the relationship between the market and the government, define the responsibilities of central government and local governments, and on this basis develop consistent policy principles so as to pave the way for the construction of efficient, fair, and sustainable affordable housing system.