Abstract
Ever since the reform and opening-up, the basic economic system of China has undergone profound changes: from unitary public ownership to public ownership playing a dominant role and different economic sectors develo** side by side; from unitary distribution according to work to distribution according to the contribution of production factors; from a highly centralized planned economy to a socialist market economy; and from a closed and semi-closed society to all-around opening-up. It is difficult for the traditional political economics based on the labor theory of value to explain the reform of the basic economic system. The system of political economics for socialism with Chinese characteristics must be established by innovation of the theory of value, thus providing strong theoretical support for further consolidation and perfection of the socialist basic economic system, a boost for the process of globalization and a buildup of the community with a shared future for mankind.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The Report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (2017) did not mention the “distribution according to the contribution of production factors”, but it proposed to “uphold and improve China’s basic socialist economic system and socialist system of distribution”, without any new interpretation, supplement or amendment to this basic economic system and system of distribution. Then “China’s basic socialist economic system and socialist system of distribution” should still be understood as the basic economic system of the public ownership playing a dominant role and different economic sectors develo** side by side and the system in which distribution according to work is dominant and a variety of modes of distribution coexist adhered to since the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the principles, systems and mechanisms of distribution according to the contribution of production factors emphasized since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
- 3.
In fact, the level of productivity can explain neither the existence and development of the non-public sector of the economy in the primary stage of socialism, nor the adoption of public ownership in the primitive society with an extremely low degree of productivity while private ownership in the slave society, feudal society and capitalist society after the remarkable development of productive forces, not to mention that developed countries that have achieved modernization still have no signs of eliminating private ownership.
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Marxist economist criticized its “defensiveness” (advocate of class conciliation).
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- 7.
Of course, eclecticism, the theory of convergence, the theory of mediation and the resulting theory of historical materialism also provide the objective basis for the formation of a mixed economy. See Cai (2015).
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This article is funded by the key research project “Exploration of Socialist Political Economics with Chinese Characteristics” (16ZDA241) of the National Social Science Fund of China.
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Cai, J. (2021). Theoretical Analysis of the Reform of the Basic Economic System of China—In Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of China’s Reform and Opening-Up. In: Yuan, Y. (eds) Studies on China’s Special Economic Zones 4. Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5632-3_1
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