九届全国人大一次会议批准的国务院机构改革，是我国改革开放以来实行的第四次政府机构改革。①人们一方面对这场刚刚开始的改革的规模和气势表示赞佩，另一方面则对它能否走出精简——膨胀——再精简——再膨胀的“怪圈”表示关注。精简国家机构是当代世界几乎所有的国家面临 The reform of the State Council institutions approved by the First Session of the Ninth NPC is the fourth reform of government agencies that has been implemented since China’s reform and opening up. On the one hand, people admire the scale and momentum of the reform that has just begun. On the other hand, it expresses its concern at whether it can move beyond the “cycle” of streamlining-expansion-streamlining-re-expansion. The simplification of State institutions is facing by almost all countries in the contemporary world