Cao Yongdong: The remarkable advantages and advanced nature of the basic socialist economic system
(Source: People’s Forum Network 2020-1-22)
Abstract: The socialist market economic system with Chinese characteristics not only consciously pursues and adapts to Marxism’s laws of development of human society, but also learns from the practical experience and lessons of the traditional socialist planned economic system, and also abandons and draws lessons from the free competition capitalist market economy of developed capitalist countries. It is a basic economic system that is basically suitable for the development level of my country’s social productive forces. To give full play to the advantages of the basic economic system and promote the modernization of national governance, we must organically integrate the socialist system and the market economy, enable state-owned capital to go global, and beware of capital reshaping the system that is beneficial to itself.
Keywords:Basic economic system, governance modernization, institutional advantages
[Chinese Library Classification Number] D61 [Document Identification Code] A
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that "my country's national system and national governance system have significant advantages in many aspects", one of which is "the significant advantage of adhering to public ownership as the main body, the common development of multiple ownership economies and distribution according to work as the main body, and the coexistence of various distribution methods, organically integrating the socialist system and the market economy, and continuously liberating and developing social productivity." Public ownership is the mainstay and various forms of ownership develop together. Distribution according to work is the mainstay and various distribution methods coexist. The socialist market economic system and other basic socialist economic systems not only reflect the superiority of the socialist system, but are also compatible with the development level of social productivity in the primary stage of socialism in my country. They play an important role in promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities. They are great creations of the Party and the people.
my country’s basic economic system is the conscious pursuit and adaptation of Marxism’s laws on the development of human society
Marx believed that the development of human society is a process of natural history, in which the development of social productive forces plays a decisive role. The development of large-scale machine industry has promoted the emergence and development of the capitalist mode of production. The wage labor system is the basis of capitalist production relations. The pursuit of surplus value and the pressure of market competition are the most important driving forces for the development of capitalist productivity. Under the general laws of capitalist accumulation, the development of labor-capital contradictions makes periodic economic crises of capitalism inevitable.
Periodic economic crisis is a chronic disease endogenous to the capitalist mode of production, and its intensification illustrates the irreconcilable nature of the contradiction between socialized large-scale production and private ownership of the means of production. The capitalist mode of production will eventually die, and the capitalist system will be replaced by the socialist system and communism will be realized. The communist system is based on highly developed productive forces, and public ownership of the means of production is its foundation. The allocation of resources under the socialist system is based on the "socially planned distribution of labor time"; the distribution of consumer goods is based on the distribution system according to work in the first stage of communist society (i.e., socialist society), and the system is based on distribution according to need in the second stage (i.e., communist society).
Marx believed that “between capitalist society and communist society, there is a period of revolutionary transformation from the former to the latter. Corresponding to this period is also a political transition period, in which the country can only be a revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.” As we all know, in reality, the productive base of the state power of the proletarian dictatorship established through the socialist revolution is relatively weak. Therefore, in terms of its backwardness in the development of productive forces, we can regard this period as a special historical transitional stage in the entire socialist development stage. The main task of this historical transitional stage is to develop social productive forces as quickly as possible and lay the economic foundation for the realization of a communist society in the future. In this process, the country under the dictatorship of the proletariat will coexist with the country under the capitalist system for a long time. Until the development of social productive forces can meet the needs of future social development, society as a whole can enter the future communist society mentioned by Marx.
After the completion of my country's socialist transformation, an economic system characterized by a highly centralized administrative management system, a highly centralized command planned economic system and a single ownership structure was established. Correspondingly, the distribution system of personal consumer goods implements an egalitarian distribution according to work system. Because of its strong resource mobilization ability, this economic system is conducive to the implementation of an industrialization development path centered on heavy industry. In terms of the goals of consolidating the new political power and establishing a relatively complete industrial system and national economic system, the traditional planned economic system has its historical rationality. However, because it exceeds the development level of social productive forces, when the phased tasks of consolidating the new political power are completed, its shortcomings of not adapting to the development level of social productive forces will become apparent. Therefore, based on the judgment of the primary stage of socialism, since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1978, my country has adhered to the trend of market-oriented reform, and finally established a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of various ownership economies, forming a distribution system with distribution according to work as the main body and multiple distribution methods coexisting.
my country’s basic economic system is based on the practical experience and lessons of the traditional socialist planned economic system
The traditional planned economic system has its historical rationality. Under the traditional planned economic system, the highly centralized command planned economic system can ensure the allocation of resources in favor of heavy industry. The highly centralized administrative management system can ensure that the allocation of resources in favor of heavy industry is effectively implemented. The microeconomic subject of single public ownership ensures that producers can reflect the national will of prioritizing the development of heavy industry in production. The low-level distribution according to work with an egalitarian tendency provides the possibility to maintain high accumulation. At the same time, the reason for implementing this basic economic system is to get rid of the constraints of the capitalist "center-periphery" colonial system on the evolution of my country's industrial structure within a certain period and to a certain extent, and to achieve the so-called latecomer advantage in material product manufacturing technology. The implementation of the traditional planned economic system in our country has promoted the development of the military industry represented by "two bombs and one satellite" and established a relatively complete industrial system and national economic system, which has solved the survival problem of the new regime and laid a certain material and technical foundation for the sustainable development of the national economy after reform and opening up.
However, the traditional planned economic system is a historical choice under specific historical conditions. The core problem is the lack of efficiency incentives for microeconomic entities, and the most fundamental problem is that social production relations do not adapt to the development level of social productivity. When the development of social productivity has not solved the problem of resource scarcity, competitive use of resources becomes inevitable. The allocation of resources under the traditional planned economic system is a relatively inefficient administrative allocation. There is a lack of efficiency incentives from production units to individuals, and "free-riding" behavior is common. When labor is not people's first need but only a means of making a living, material incentives are needed to improve labor efficiency; when all sources of social wealth have not yet fully flowed, the market's means of allocating resources is more socioeconomically efficient.
my country’s current basic economic system is based on the practical experience and lessons of the traditional socialist planned economic system. On the one hand, it realizes the equality of workers' possession of the means of production and reflects the nature of our country's socialist system; on the other hand, it retains the micro-effective subject of balanced development of the national economy. In the macro-distribution of national income, the public-owned economy embodies the planned long-term strategic will of the socialist country. Because it does not fully pursue short-term profit maximization, it will not push the imbalance of market supply and demand to the extreme.
So far, there has not been an economic crisis in the Western sense in our country. This is directly related to our country's basic economic system with public ownership as the main body. In addition, the common development of multiple ownership systems has given rise to a large number of micro entities with clear property rights boundaries, which is conducive to building a market economic system with more efficient resource allocation. After my country's reform and opening up, the success of the rural household contract responsibility system released a large amount of rural surplus labor and promoted the development of township enterprises; at the same time, the rapid development of non-public economies such as the individual economy, private economy, and foreign-invested economy gave birth to a large number of market entities. The economic efficiency of the private economy has forced state-owned enterprises to reform their property rights structures, giving state-owned capital in competitive fields a new lease of life through joint-stock reform. The emergence and development of various qualified market entities with clear property rights have established the microeconomic entity foundation of my country's socialist market economy, thus enabling the construction of a socialist market economic system.
my country’s basic economic system is a reference to and transcendence of the free competition capitalist market economy of developed capitalist countries
With the continuous improvement of the degree of socialization of production, the basic economic system of capitalism is constantly evolving, and the direct cause of its evolution is related to the economic performance of capital.
The results of capitalist free competition have led to the emergence of private monopolies, and the increasingly intensified imbalance between labor and capital and the imbalance of supply and demand have led to an intensifying economic crisis. The two world wars and the economic crisis that swept the world from 1929 to 1933 ended the anarchic and free-competition capitalism, thereby declaring the demise of the free-competition capitalism criticized by Marx. Capitalism thus entered the stage of state monopoly capitalism. State monopoly capitalism is capitalism in which monopoly capital and state power are closely integrated, in which the state, as one of the economic entities, participates in market economic behavior and carries out institutional repairs to free competition capitalism in many aspects that are conducive to the stable operation of the market.
The main manifestations of state monopoly capitalism are: the state enacts anti-monopoly laws to prevent excessive competition; nationalizes certain economic fields to maintain the conditions for relatively stable economic development and the basis for the overall competitiveness of national capital; uses short-term macro-control to seek relative stability in the market; implements a social welfare system to alleviate systemic risks in the market economy and the resulting social unrest, etc. These forms of state monopoly capitalism are essentially measures to ease labor-capital conflicts in order to improve the performance of the market economy. Under the constraints and intervention of various patchwork systems and policies of state capitalism, from the 1950s to the 1970s, the gap between the rich and the poor tended to narrow, labor-capital conflicts tended to ease, and a high economic growth rate was maintained. After the 1970s, liberalism began to resurface in the form of neoliberalism, and increasingly severe cyclical economic crises began to return, which reflected the limitations of state monopoly capitalism.
Realistically speaking, the monopoly capitalism in Western countries can continue to promote the development of social productive forces, which shows that the degree of socialization of production determined by the development of social productive forces in the world today is not high enough to require single public ownership of the means of production in the entire society. Therefore, as a developing country with a relatively backward development level of social productivity, the basic economic system established by my country's traditional planned economic system in pursuing single public ownership was an economic system that exceeded the development level of social productivity and hindered the development of social productivity at that time. To a certain extent, the basic economic system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a reference to and transcendence of the free competition capitalist market economy of developed capitalist countries, but they are essentially different.
my country’s mixed-ownership economy is a mixed-ownership economy with public ownership as the main body and the state-owned economy as the leading role. It is the basic economic system that serves the economic construction of a socialist country under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The purpose of establishing the social welfare security system in my country is to share the results of economic development with all the people, and has the characteristics of low-level distribution on demand. The Western mixed-ownership economy is a mixed-ownership economy with capitalist private ownership as the main body and the corresponding private economy as the leading role. It is an economic system that serves capital to earn profits; the Western social welfare security system is a self-adjustment made by capitalist countries in order to maintain the capitalist system and reduce labor-capital conflicts to a certain extent. It serves state monopoly capitalism. We learn from some specific practices of monopoly capitalism in Western countries to maintain the balanced operation of the market because of the similarities in efficient economic operation after the productivity develops to a certain stage. However, our country is a national system under the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the market mechanism, as a means of resource allocation, serves to lay the economic foundation for a communist society; while monopoly capitalism in Western countries is a national system under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the market mechanism, as a means of resource allocation, serves to earn profits for capital.
Make fuller use of the advantages of the basic economic system to promote the modernization of national governance
Integrate the socialist system and market economy organically, and continuously liberate and develop social productive forces
One connection point between the socialist system and the market economy is the reform of state-owned enterprises. Marx believes that joint-stock companies are the result of the extreme development of capitalist production and "are the necessary transition point for capital to be transformed into the property of producers. However, this property is no longer the private property of separate producers, but the property of united producers, that is, direct social property." The nature of what Marx called the "transition point" of joint-stock companies enables my country's state-owned economy to not only retain the nature of socialist public ownership after undergoing joint-stock reform, but also become a qualified market subject that is compatible with the market economy. At the same time, with the continuous development of social productivity and the continuous improvement of the degree of socialization of production, the mixed-ownership economy controlled by the state has become a form of social production organization that strengthens the control of public ownership and connects the property rights of different social ownerships.
The classification reform of my country’s state-owned economic property rights system is generally in line with the degree of socialization of production. State-owned enterprises that provide public goods choose the state-owned and state-owned model, monopolistic state-owned enterprises choose the state-owned and state-controlled model, some competitive state-owned enterprises undergo joint-stock reform with diversified property rights, and some implement privatization. The reason why our country has been able to establish a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of various ownership economies that complies with the operating rules of the market economy is mainly because it has successfully carried out joint-stock reform with diversified property rights in the state-owned economy in competitive fields, thus creating qualified market economy micro-subjects with mixed ownership in the form of socialist public ownership. In order to truly activate state-owned capital in competitive fields, my country has implemented a four-tier authorized operation model for competitive state-owned capital. In the four-tier authorization business model, what is really important is the efficiency effect of the second level of authorization. The holding company authorized by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission to operate state-owned capital should be an investment company based on private capital, so that it can bear the risk of investment failure and truly realize the separation of government and enterprise in state-owned capital operations, thereby improving the operating efficiency of state-owned capital. State-owned capital in competitive fields should follow the principle of efficiency in order to maintain and increase the value of state-owned capital.
Enable state-owned capital to go global and produce extensive global influence
The economic crisis in 2008 had a profound impact on the development of the world economy. China and the United States had very different approaches. The United States has basically implemented a zero-sum game strategy of "America First, Passing the Crisis", which demonstrates the characteristics of American state monopoly capitalism. However, in the context of the rapid development of economic globalization in today's world, economic and w88 connections between various economies have become increasingly close, and no one can remain alone. It seems that the United States has benefited in the short term and its economic growth has performed well. However, the "America First" international economic and w88 policies it has implemented have paved the way for uneven development of the world economy. As the world's largest economy, the United States' actions are not only detrimental to the balanced and sustainable development of the world economy, but will ultimately shoot itself in the foot. On the contrary, China starts from the height of a community with a shared future for mankind, promotes the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure through supply-side structural reforms at home, trades short-term economic growth slowdown for the release of long-term economic growth momentum, and strives to tap the country's potential competitive advantages and improve the country's potential competitiveness. Internationally, through the advancement of the "Belt and Road" construction, it opens up new international markets, while helping to break economic development bottlenecks such as infrastructure construction in developing countries along the routes, achieving mutual mitigation and mutual benefit, and laying a solid foundation for long-term stable growth and development of the world economy in the future. The "Belt and Road" construction promoted by our country is guided by state-owned capital and drives private capital to go global. It starts from the height of a community with a shared future for mankind and allows relevant countries in the world to ride on the express train of China's development. It reflects the essential characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics that not only seeks progress and development for itself, but also for mankind.
Beware of capital’s so-called capital capture that benefits itself
After the reform and opening up, China built a socialist market economic system with Chinese characteristics on the basis of a basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of multiple ownership economies, as well as a corresponding distribution method. It is an economic system that is basically in line with China’s current level of productivity development and has promoted China’s economy to continue to create miracles. At the same time, due to the existence of private ownership of the means of production and the distribution system based on factors, my country's current socialist market economic system will also, to some extent, cause a series of problems such as the contradiction between production and consumption and the widening gap in personal income. Especially as the economic power of various forms of private ownership grows, we need to beware of capital's efforts to reshape political, economic, social, cultural and other systems in its own favor, that is, to carry out so-called capital capture efforts. At the same time, we also need to be alert to the intentions of international capitalist countries to carry out peaceful evolution and color revolution in our country, and to fight resolutely against all kinds of reactionary forces that want to bring down our country.
Therefore, in the process of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, we should adhere to the party's overall leadership, continuously promote party building, provide all-round guarantees for the modernization of national governance in terms of ideology, organization, and governance capabilities, ensure that the modernization of national governance is in line with the fundamental interests of the people, and ensure that the cause of the party and the country always advances successfully in the right direction.
[The author of this article is a professor at the w88 casino of Marxism, w88 casino; this article was funded by the National Social Science Foundation General Project "Research on the Practical Characteristics and Efficiency Effects of the Socialist Distribution System with Chinese Characteristics" (14BKS033)]
References
[1] "Communique of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China", Xinhuanet, October 31, 2019.
[2] Wang Ge: "On the profound understanding and significance of Marx's "re-establishing individual ownership"", "Journal of Fuzhou Party w88 casino", Issue 03, 2019.
Original link:
