Political Economy Of Socialism Research Articles

“In the beginning was the Word”: words and deeds of Soviet economists in the book “Cognitive structures and political economy of socialism in the USSR”, ed. by P. A. Orekhovskii

Objective: to evaluate the work “Cognitive structures and political economy of socialism in the USSR”, ed. by P.A. Orekhovsky (St. Petersburg: Aleteya, 2022).Methods: textual analysis, methodological criticism.Results: the paper reviews a collective monograph by the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences devoted to the history of Soviet economic thought in the 1950s – first half of the 1980s. The novelty of the reviewed work consists in the methodological approach. It involves analyzing the peculiarities of speech practices and assumes that their result was the formation of a special cognitive structure, which development cycle had a decisive influence on political processes. Not being a tutorial, the work can be used as auxiliary educational material on the history of Soviet economy and economic thought. At the same time, the work contains a number of controversial points. In general, it presents an important contribution to a potential discussion of the past and present of the Russian economic science and the nature of late-Soviet and post-Soviet economic and social changes.Scientific novelty: the innovation of the work consists in the consistent application of the approach to the history of Soviet economic science, which implies blurring of a clear boundary between the subject and object of economic research. The originality of the methodological approach consists in the fact that it applies Western “postmodernism” to analyze such a unique object as the Soviet economic science.Practical significance: the work can be recommended to a wide range of specialists interested in the problems under consideration.

Deepening the disciplinary cognition and constructing the theoretical system of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

PurposeThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is a systematic economic discipline, which theoretically summarises the socialist economic system and the path of economic development with Chinese characteristics. It is a systematic economic theory of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The theoretical system construction for the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is currently a major task.Design/methodology/approachFrom the perspective of disciplinary cognition, the theoretical system of the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics includes the disciplinary attributes and connotations, theoretical basis, the origin of thoughts, major principles, logical starting point, main logic and problem-based study of major theoretical and practical issues.FindingsDeveloping the discipline and building the theoretical system of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, several major principles should be adhered to, including building the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics on the basis of historical materialism; building the theoretical paradigm of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics around the analysis of production relations; adhering to the people-centred principle; taking common prosperity as the main logic of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics; studying the major theoretical and practical issues of building the socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era based on problems; and reflecting the innovative development of the discipline in the textbook, The Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics.Originality/valueDisciplinary cognition involves the connotations, attributes, mission and development path of the discipline, which is related to how to construct the discipline system and is a significant part of the disciplinary construction.

Political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics: on the issue of intra- and interdisciplinary synthesis

Objective: to show the ontological potential of interdisciplinarity and paradigmatic pluralism in economic research by the example of the Chinese-specific socialism model and its description in Western socio-political discourse.Methods: qualitative methods (discourse analysis, comparative analysis, generalization).Results: the work shows the features of the discourse in modern economic theory regarding the problems of intra- and interdisciplinary synthesis. The economic mainstream, claiming the accuracy of its method of creating scientific knowledge, can and does become the basis of political knowledge and ideological judgments. Describing certain aspects of reality, the mainstream normalizes them, and sometimes elevates them to the rank of a rule. Based on the analysis of the Chinese model of economic reforms, the article shows that in Western socio-political and scientific discourses regarding this model, both at the stage of their beginning and now, there are erroneous ideas and expectations about the purpose, content and results of the reform process. The root cause of this false perception is, assumingly, the disciplinary isolation of economics, as economics is considered to be a universal extrapolitical and extra-cultural constant. To confirm this thesis, the main stages of the transformation of the ideology of building the Chinese economic model, its transition from an anti-market and anticapitalist position to a Chinese-specific socialism model are considered. It is shown that among the trajectories of China’s future development, Western economists and politicians saw only the two main ones: creeping liberalization and limiting the influence of the state in the Chinese economy, accompanied by democratization of the political sphere, on the one hand, and reaching the limits of economic growth possible for countries with authoritarian institutions, on the other. However, the collective action factor ignored by researchers has formed a stable growth economy, not accompanied by political liberalization.Scientific novelty: consists in comprehending the discourses about the Chinese economy as a result of the challenge posed by the Chinese reforms to mainstream political economy.Practical significance: the provisions and conclusions of the research can be further used to study the influence of economic theory on socio-political discourses and political decisions.

Схоластика в экономической науке как симптом неизбежного кризиса

An academic text being described as ‘scholastic’ is usually perceived as a criticism, pointing to the text’s formal, dogmatic character. This characteristic was used from time to time in relation to the works of social scientists in the USSR. This term is much less common in modern academia, including the discussion of modern economic writings. This does not mean, however, that many of these papers do not deserve to be described as such, given the ever-increasing number of publications. The article puts forward a hypothesis that there is a connection between the scholastic style of reasoning and the construction of economic texts, signifying the onset of a crisis in economic research, accompanied by a transition to a full-scale socio-economic crisis. This hypothesis is being tested on the basis of two historical precedents — medieval scholasticism proper and the political economy of socialism. In both cases, the term ‘scholastic’ was applied relatively frequently to published texts. In addition, during the periods of feudal or Soviet scholasticism, the dominant role was played by religion or, in the case of the Soviet Union, ideology and its dominance was also reinforced by power hierarchies. While in the case of feudalism it was the Vatican that held the ‘monopoly on truth’, in the USSR this role was played by Marxism-Leninism and the Politburo of the CPSU. In the case of the Middle Ages, the authors use Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologia as the main object of discursive analysis and as for the Soviet period, the analysis focuses on the monograph Political Economy — Theoretical Foundation of the CPSU’s Policy published in 1989 by Soviet theoretical economists. Along with these sources, we also look at the works of A. Greif and E. Gaidar, showing a critical discrepancy between the scholastic discourse and economic reality.

The Logical Thread of the Political Economy of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

The theoretical system of the political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics is composed of multiple parts, and the logical thread runs through it as a crucial element, but the determination of the logical thread has been controversial. This article lists the relevant scholars about the main points of view of logic, and points out the shortcomings of some of the representative views, on this basis, according to the previous research and establish logic general principle, combined with the practice of China's economic construction and the work report of President Xi Jinping at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, summarized "based on practice, problem oriented, change production relations make it better combined with productivity to promote the" people-centered " socialist economic development, and finally achieve common prosperity”, which is a more reasonable logical thread.

To build the soul of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

PurposeThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is the scientific fruit of Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics for a new era. People-centred philosophy is the core values of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's governance of China with Xi Jinping as the core and has become the core values of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. According to Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics, it represents the interests of all people and determines the disciplinary attribute of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, that is, people-centred economics. Xi Jinping has defined the essence of the socialism as eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihood and gradually realising common prosperity. That determines the main line of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to liberate, develop and protect the productive forces and achieve common prosperity. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned statements.Design/methodology/approachXi Jinping's scientific judgement on the new stage of development and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has put forward the requirement of problem orientation for the study of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, involving the main contradiction facing Chinese society, high-quality development and modernisation. China's socialist basic economic system consists of a socialist market economy in which public ownership plays the leading role alongside other forms of ownership and distribution according to work is the mainstay, while other forms of distribution coexist alongside it. And this socialist basic economic system, marked out from three dimensions—production, distribution and exchange analysis, is the key of analysis of systems in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The economic operation analysis in political economy mainly involves resource allocation and the government's macroeconomic regulation and control.FindingsThe new thought and new practices about the role of the market and the government in the new era have opened up a new realm for the economic operation analysis in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development philosophy and new development paradigm define the content of the economic development theory in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development paradigm reflects the dual circulation theory of social reproduction.Originality/valueThe socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to study laws of economics in various aspects from economic system, economic operation, economic development to foreign economy and provide the basic principles of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. Its mainstream economic position will be consolidated continuously.

The Economic Discussion of 1951: the Main Approaches to the Development of Problematic Theoretical Questions of the Political Economy of Socialism

The Economic Discussion of 1951: the Main Approaches to the Development of Problematic Theoretical Questions of the Political Economy of Socialism

The new stage and mission of researching the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

PurposeThe aim of this paper is reviewing the discipline development course of the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics and recognising the changes of its development and its historic mission in the new stage will be beneficial to the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics from the perspective of doctrinal history.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper from the aspect of discipline formation and development, the history of China’s socialist political economy has experienced two stages: emergence and formation (the first stage) and steady development (the second stage). It has explored new research fields and improved the quality of research levels. However, the role of studying the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics has not been fully played regarding satisfying the needs of constructing socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.FindingsIn this study when the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics entered a new era, the study of the history of socialist political economy also entered a new stage, showing new features in terms of research objectives, principles, scale and methods.Originality/valueTherefore, the research on the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics should be highly emphasised, and the focus on serving the construction of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics should be its historic mission and core task. Also, researchers should pay attention to changing ideas, laying a good foundation, highlighting key points, building platforms and broadening horizons.

On the Theoretical Features of the Political Economy of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and the New Issues

Marxist political economy possesses a unique theoretical quality, and provides deep insights into the laws of social development and the progress of human society. The political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the product of combining the fundamentals of Marxist political economy with the practice of the economic construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics; it also plays an important role in guiding China as it records economic achievements that are attracting worldwide attention. Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, in which the political economy of socialism with Chinese characteristics is being called upon to deal with a series of new issues as well as to make new contributions to promoting the construction of socialist modernization and the cause of reform and opening-up.

Конкурирующие проекты социализма в СССР периода политического романтизма. Часть I. Политэкономия социализма: проект или симулякр?

The paper examines public discussions on the political economy of socialism and the socialist project in general, which began after the death of I. Stalin and continued until 1973. The pragmatic and romantic lines of understanding social­ism and attitudes towards communism are highlighted. The position of the “pragmatists” is presented in the first textbook of political economy published in 1954. Eventually it retained the possibility of transforming Soviet socialism into a market economy. Actually, this possibility was implemented in China in the late 1970s. However, in the USSR, it provoked dead resistance. At the level of the party system and related political economists, the goal was to interpret eco­nomic phenomena within the orthodox version of Marxism. On the contrary, the “romantics” such as E. Ilyenkov defended the most radical project of building a future communist society, which would make it possible to overcome the divi­sion of labor and the related alienation still seen under the actual socialism. It is a historical paradox that romantic projects imposed the evolution of the USSR along the “Chinese path”.

Socialist Political Economy With Chinese Characteristics And Research On The Chinese And Foreign Economies

In 2021, responding to changes in the world political and economic situation and basing itself on Marxist political economy, the New Marxian Economics Synthesis School led by Professor Enfu Cheng carried forward its traditions and forged ahead into the future. The school conducted active, in-depth research on how to uphold the integrity of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics and enrich it with new elements, putting forward a series of theoretical innovations in areas that include the ten essentials of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, its sources of innovation and logical starting point, the orientation of its practice, and so forth. Based on these theoretical innovations, many of the scholars who make up the school engaged in lively discussion on a range of focal issues of today’s Chinese economy, including common prosperity, the new “dual circulation” development pattern, artificial intelligence and the digital economy, the modernization of national governance and so on. In addition, they made searching criticisms of the financialization of the contemporary capitalist economy and of the new developments seen in liberalism and hegemonism since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. In sum, they recorded a long series of fruitful theoretical achievements.

A new solution to the “difficult problem” of the object of study of political economy

PurposeAs there are different interpretations of the object of study in the preface to the first edition of Capital (Volume I) by Karl Marx, disagreements arise over the object of study on political economy, which becomes a “difficult problem.” The purpose of the paper is to bring a new solution to the “difficult problem.”Design/methodology/approachBased on the analysis of the logic of the original text, the authors attempted to give a new interpretation of the “difficult problem” by analyzing the structure of Capital. The object of study of political economy is “the relations of production in the broad sense” of the capitalist mode of production.FindingsIt comprises relations of production in the narrow sense and exchange relations in the broad sense, and the latter can be divided into exchange relations in the narrow sense and distribution relations. The three of them correspond to Volume I, II and III of Capital, respectively. Consumption in “the four-section theory” is not studied by the political economy.Originality/valueAnd the four-section theory is not a part of the theory of Marxist economics but a part of the classical economics criticized by Marx. Therefore, the object of study of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is “the relations of production in the broad sense” regarding the socialist mode of production with Chinese characteristics, which is different from the capitalist relations of production in the broad sense.

Janos Kornai and his memorable work

ABSTRACT Janos Kornai was the most outstanding economist from the socialist and post-socialist region in the last 50 years. He was a world-renowned scholar who left behind an immense legacy of works published in over 20 languages. His theory of systemic disequilibrium in a centrally planned economy, the concept of hard and soft budget constraints, and economic shortage were of revolutionary importance to the scientific interpretation of the processes of production, distribution and capital accumulation in state socialist economies. Also of note is the author’s work on political economy of socialism, which he taught at the Harvard University. When analysing the socialist system, Kornai essentially contented himself with a descriptive approach, whereas in works published after 1989 he focused his attention on normative economics, suggesting directions of structural reform, institution-building, and economic policy in post-socialist transition. Also of great importance is Kornai’s last book comparing the disequilibrium characterised by shortage in socialism with the disequilibrium typical of the surplus in capitalism. This article analyses the evolution of this outstanding economist’s theoretical thought and its impact on real economic processes.

János Kornai and his memorable work

János Kornai was the most outstanding economist of socialist and postsocialist countries in the last fifty years. He was a world-renowned scholar who left behind an immense legacy of works published in over twenty languages. His theory of systemic disequilibrium in a centrally planned economy, concept of hard and soft budget constraints and the economics of shortage were of revolutionary importance to the scientific interpretation of the processes of production, distribution and capital accumulation in state socialist economies. Also of note is the author’s work on political economy of socialism, which he taught at the Harvard University. When analysing the socialist system Kornai essentially contented himself with a descriptive approach, whereas in works published post-1989 he focused his attention on normative economics suggesting directions of structural reform, institution-building and economic policy in post-socialist transition. Of great importance is also Kornai’s last book comparing the disequilibrium characterised by shortage in socialism with the disequilibrium typical of the surplus in capitalism. The article analyses the evolution of this outstanding economist’s theoretical thought and its impact on real economic processes. Polemic comments are also made on the interpretation of economic and social processes taking place in China.

Some thoughts on establishing the theoretical system of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics

PurposeIt is scholars' great mission in this era to creatively develop new implications, paradigms and discourses of China's political economy and establish a theoretical system of political economy with Chinese characteristics based on the fundamental principles of Marxist theory and the practice and historical process of Chinese economic reform, through theorizing and systemizing the practices of China's socialist market economy construction. The purpose of this paper is to give some suggestions to establish a socialist theoretical system with Chinese characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThis paper makes a comprehensive analysis of the principles, objectives, study objects, methodologies as well as the framework of the theoretical system of the political economy with Chinese characteristics.FindingsAdditionally, starting from the unity of opposites between public ownership of resources and resource allocation in a market mechanism, which is the fundamental dialectical relation of China's socialist market economy, the authors will adopt the dual dialectical analysis approach to discover and understand the duality features of the socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics.Originality/valueWith adherence to the mission of China's socialist economic system, the goal of China's market economic reform, and the perspectives of Marxist political economy, the authors must explicitly define the so-called Chinese characteristics and then summarize the dynamics and innovations during the evolution of Chinese socialist political economy with high theory confidence and theory self-consciousness.

Research on the Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics in Facing the Challenges of the New Economic Era

With the vigorous development of science and technology, emerging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, internet of things, and artificial intelligence have emerged. Driven by all these, the social economy in China is in the key stage of transformation into the new economic era. The international situation is also transforming, gradually changing from the economic system dominated by the traditional economy to the new economic system. Therefore, there is a need to conduct an in-depth analysis and research on the concept of “new economy”; that is, an economic form that integrates new technologies, industries, and models based on information technology or internet platforms. In combination of socialism with Chinese characteristics, it can be appreciated that with the arrival of the new economic era, there are great challenges to the productivity theory, labor value theory, and wealth theory under the traditional economic system. In order to effectively deal with the above challenges and adapt to the new economic development trend, there is a need to explore effective countermeasures from the perspective of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics in order to provide effective reference in predicting the trend of domestic economic development and docking with the new economic era.

Critical examination and source-tracing in China of economic thought of Francois Quesnay from the perspective of the construction of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics

PurposeFrancois Quesnay, known as the “Confucius of Europe”, was profoundly influenced by traditional Chinese culture to form his thoughts, which contained strong Chinese characteristics. This paper aims to examine economic thought of Francois Quesnay from the perspective of the construction of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics.Design/methodology/approachMoreover, his thoughts also profoundly influenced subsequent economists, such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It can be said that Francois Quesnay was at the intersection of Chinese, Western and Marxist thought systems, so it is quite important to examine his thoughts critically and conduct source-tracing in China.FindingsHence, in the process of constructing and developing socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, there is an urgent need to focus on exploring the value of excellent traditional Chinese culture at the theoretical level and combining the development and dissemination of the history of thoughts and the historical position of Chinese reality to realize the innovation and development of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.Originality/valueMeanwhile, while absorbing nutrition from excellent traditional Chinese culture, it is necessary to establish scientific coordinates rather than use the discourse systems and paradigms of Western economics to interpret ancient Chinese economic thoughts. It is necessary to adhere to, inherit and develop Marxist political economy and absorb nutrition from Chinese excellent traditional culture to construct socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.

A study on the writing method of the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics

PurposeExpanding the research on traditional history of economic ideology into the research on the history of economics composed of three elements – history of ideology, history of policies and events – is a new idea for researching the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The start of the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is consistent with that of the Sinicization of Marxist political economy and can be dated from at least 1917.Design/methodology/approachThe key point of the research on the history of ideologies of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to treat the relationship between theory and people properly, i.e. we should not neglect the effect brought out by the economists on theory construction while we attach importance to the theoretical contribution of the leaders and leading group of the Communist Party of China (CPC).FindingsFor the research on the history of economic policies of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, on the one hand, we should clarify the relationship among ideologies, strategies and policies; on the other hand, we should not evade the summarization of lessons from history.Originality/valueBesides presenting the development route of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics under competition, the research on the events in the history of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics should also help develop the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics.

Дискуссия вокруг производительных сил (Политэкономия социализма: когнитивный тупик 1970-х)

Objective: to check the hypothesis of the existence of a cognitive deadlock in the socialist political economy in the USSRin the 1970s, which led to stagnation in political and economic research.Methods: discursive analysis, dialectics, hermeneutics, qualitative methods.Results: the content and role of the categories “objectification”, “reification”, “dependence”, “freedom” in the political economy of socialism are revealed. The author analyzes the views of Soviet theorists on the economic evaluation of factors of production, including labor (wages), fixed assets (depreciation), land (rent), and demonstrates the contradictions and “blind spots” of the socialist political economy. In particular, the article describes the paradoxical “fallout” of the problem of depreciation of housing stock and intra-block engineering networks from the discussion of fixed assets depreciation, as well as the issue of productive forces in general.In retrospect, the analysis revealed the predominant influence of the cognitive structure limitations compared to the ideological control. The development of economic science in the USSR was constrained by the norms of speech practices, which imposed restrictions on the discussion of fundamental problems, including “alienation” and “freedom”. Compared to these restrictions, the external ideological control of the Communist party was relatively weak, which, in particular, is proved by the publication of works by E. V. Ilyenkov, V. P. Shkredov and other researchers. The cognitive structure of the socialist political economy caused blind spots, when most of the important problems related to the productive forces were not publicly discussed. At the same time, the issues (freedom, dependence, alienation) directly related to Karl Marx legacy were also largely not discussed. Scientific novelty: the influence of the cognitive structure and its limitations on the development of the socialist political economy is demonstrated.Practical significance: a retrospective analysis allows both a deeper understanding of the reasons that led to the economic collapse of the USSR, and seeing the possible cognitive limitations of modern research, which largely inherited the approaches of Soviet scholars.

Discussions about The Asian Mode of Production (The Political Economy of Socialism: The Cognitive Deadlock of The 1970s)

The paper examines the history of discussions about the Asian mode of production in the USSR, associated with understanding the nature of socialism. Initial interest in the Asian mode of production was associated with the national liberation movements in China and the Middle East, which were supported by the Comintern in the 1920s. The political and economic structure of these countries was not capitalist, but also not feudal. This required the actualization of Marx's ideas and the development of a political strategy to find allies of the communists. Discussions at this time were between supporters of the Asian mode of production and those who considered it a special version of slavery and feudalism. In the 1970s. there is a turn in the interpretation of the Asian way and understanding of socialism, associated with criticism of totalitarianism (Wittfogel) and the bourgeois top of the communist parties (Djilas, Voslensky). K.–A. Wittfogel was one of the first to transfer the concept of the Asian mode of production to the economies of the USSR and Nazi Germany, substantiating the phenomena of total terror, total submission and total alienation. He views Soviet socialism as an institutional mutant, a totalitarian version of state capitalism that has no future and is based on terror. Subsequently R.M. Nureev draws parallels with the Soviet economy in his work on pre-capitalist formations. An interpretation of socialism arises not as a new, advanced social order, but, on the contrary, as a society with backward, non-market institutions. Terror in this case does not play such an important role. The main thing is bureaucratic, non-economic redistribution of products and incomes. The Asian mode of production is considered by Marxists as a transitional method from a social formation to an economic (exploitative) one, and socialism is also a transitional method (from an economic formation to a social one). The transitional methods are characterized by common features – a mixture of advanced elements with backward ones. As a result, Nureev's research did not evoke such a negative attitude as the work of Wittfogel, Djilas, Voslensky. In the late 1970s – early 1980s the concept of «power – property» is formed, which reinforces this interpretation. The recognition of its truth is a delegitimization of the existing social order, and nevertheless, it is rapidly spreading among historians and political economists who adhere to the Marxist interpretation of social processes. This is a striking characteristic of the cognitive deadlock of the political economy of socialism, which, in fact, denies itself. Subsequently the concept of power – property is used to characterize the development trajectory of post-socialist states. Similar views on institutional evolution appear in the Western mainstream (D. North, D. Acemoglu). However, researchers have a «blind spot»: when applying the concept of power – property to Russia, they ignore the proliferation of oligarchy in rich countries. In this respect, the old Marxist approach continues to be relevant and radical in upholding democratic values