Why Does China Implement the "Dual Reduction Policy" to Restrict Educational Industry? An Explanation Based on Marxist Political Economy

Abstract

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels proposed in "The Communist Manifesto" the viewpoint of the inevitable demise of capitalism, Marxist political economy serves as an explanation and justification of this viewpoint. Marxist political economy forms a complete logical system, which elucidates the developmental path of capitalist collapse through three stages: surplus value, free competition, and monopoly capitalism. The theory of surplus value explains the intrinsic essence of capitalist society, wherein capitalists profit by exploiting labor, while free market competition and monopoly capitalism are external manifestations of the operational laws of capitalist society. In recent years, the disorderly expansion of educational capital in China has shown clear monopolistic tendencies. At this juncture, China promptly implemented the "dual reduction policy" to restrict the expansion of educational capital, which is a practical application of Marxist political economy. From the perspective of Marxist political economy theory, China's restrictions on educational capital serve three purposes: firstly, to prevent capital from excessively depriving laborers of surplus value; secondly, to avoid cyclical economic crises brought about by unregulated capital competition; thirdly, to prevent monopolies and thereby avert both economic crises and the social crises brought about by monopolies.