Socialism Research: What is the Essence of Socialism?
The Communist Party of China’s Understanding and Re-understanding of the Essence of Socialism
From Journal of Peking University Journal of Peking University February 24, 2023
Author Wang Huaichao is Professor of the Department of Scientific Socialism, Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (National School of Administration), Distinguished Professor of the Open University of China
Abstract: The essence of socialism is the deepest concept in the theory of scientific socialism. This concept answers the core question of “what is socialism.”
The classical Marxist writers Marx, Engels, Lenin did not explicitly use the concept of the essence of socialism, but of course they did discuss the essence of socialism. Deng Xiaoping first put forward the concept of the essence of socialism and defined it in the practice of leading China’s reform and opening up and socialist modernization, making original contributions to the development of scientific socialism.
The Chinese Communists, represented mainly by Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, continued to explore the essence of socialism and the essential characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and put forward a series of important propositions, further deepening and expanding the understanding of the essence of socialism.
According to the basic principles of scientific socialism and the historical experience of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the essence of socialism can be summarized as follows: Socialism is essentially a new type of social system, whose essential characteristics are that it takes the proletarian party as the core of leadership and the people as the main actors, and gradually achieves common prosperity, continuously realizes social justice, and promotes the free and all-round development of people through the liberation and development of productive forces.
Content of the Article
1. Marx, Engels and Lenin’s Understanding of the Essence of Socialism
II. The CPC’s New Understanding of the Essence of Socialism
III. The Communist Party of China’s Re-understanding of the Essence of Socialism
IV. A New Summary of the Essence of Socialism
Text Begins Here
Essence is a philosophical concept. Essence and phenomenon are a pair of philosophical categories. The so-called essence is the inevitable connection within things, that is, the inherent stipulation of things, and it is also the fundamental mark that distinguishes one thing from another. The so-called socialist essence is the fundamental attribute and internal stipulation of socialist society, which is the fundamental mark that distinguishes socialist society from other societies. The socialist essence runs through the entire process of the development of socialist society and determines the development direction and essential characteristics of socialist society.
1. Marx, Engels and Lenin’s Understanding of the Essence of Socialism
Marx and Engels did not explicitly put forward the concept of ” essence of socialism” nor did Marx and Engels focus on discussing the essence of socialism.
However, in the process of criticizing capitalist society and making predictions for the future new society, Marx and Engels clarified the essential characteristics of socialist society. They envisioned the future new society as a “association of free humans ” where “the free development of each person is the condition for the free development of all people in the society.” (Manifest)
In Capital, Marx said that communist society is a “higher social form than capitalist society, with the all-round and free development of each person as its basic principle.” This is the ideal social form for realizing human liberation.
The association of free men mentioned by Marx and Engels also contains another meaning: the organizational form of socialist-communist society. That is to say, after the establishment of socialist-communist society, due to the elimination of classes and class antagonism, everyone will become the master of society, and everyone’s talents and wisdom will be free and fully developed. Personal interests are no longer in conflict with social interests, and personal interests and their development goals are consistent with the fundamental interests and development goals of society. The free development of each person will not only not hinder the development of others, but will also promote and encourage each other.
In the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels pointed out the difference between the proletarian movement and all previous movements: “All previous movements were movements of a minority, or movements for the benefit of a minority. The proletarian movement is an independent movement of the vast majority, for the benefit of the vast majority.” That is to say, in the eyes of Marx and Engels, seeking benefits for the vast majority is the essential feature of the socialist-communist movement. In today’s terms, seeking benefits for all the humans is the purpose of establishing a socialist system.
Before the October Revolution in Russia, Lenin fully accepted the basic views of Marx and Engels on socialist society. In the practice of leading the socialist construction in Russia after the October Revolution, Lenin’s views on socialism changed fundamentally. The reason was that Russia was building socialism in a country with relatively backward economy and culture, which was different from the starting point of socialism envisioned by Marx and Engels. Faced with the contradiction between theory and practice, Lenin clearly proposed that socialism in practice should “discuss socialism based on experience”; for Russia, socialism has changed from books and programs to actual work, and the era of arguing about socialism based on books is over. “Now everything depends on practice. We have reached such a historical juncture: theory is turning into practice, theory is given vitality by practice, modified by practice, and tested by practice; Marx’s words, ‘one step of practical movement is more important than a dozen programs’, seem particularly correct.” Comprehensively summarizing Lenin’s new understanding of socialism, it is mainly concentrated in three aspects: First, after seizing power, the proletariat should always focus on economic and cultural construction as the focus of work and place it in an extremely important position as long as conditions permit; second, improving labor productive forces, which is the most important condition for the ultimate victory of the socialist system; third, under socialist conditions, the system of civilized cooperative workers is the socialist system.
After Lenin, Stalin explored the basic characteristics of socialism in light of the practice of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and formed an understanding of the basic characteristics of socialism, namely, the socialist ownership of the means of production, the socialist distribution principle of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his work”, and the organization of production according to the national plan. In short, in Stalin’s view, the basic characteristics of socialism are: public ownership of the means of production + planned economy + distribution according to work. This understanding was later called the traditional socialist view. This socialist view has had a profound impact on the socialist construction of socialist countries.
II. The CPC’s New Understanding of the Essence of Socialism
At the beginning of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, due to the lack of experience in socialist construction and the lack of in-depth understanding of socialism, the Chinese Communists basically accepted Stalin’s socialist ideas and regarded the public ownership of the means of production, distribution according to work and production organized according to plan as the basic characteristics of socialism. In the arrangement of the socialist system, the Soviet model was basically copied. In the mid-1950s, with the development of socialist construction, the Communist Party of China began to realize the shortcomings of the Soviet model and some of Stalin’s socialist ideas did not conform to China’s reality. Mao Zedong clearly raised the basic contradictions of socialist society and creatively proposed that China’s socialist construction should proceed from China’s reality and take the Chinese-style industrialization road. However, due to various reasons, the essence of socialism has not yet been touched upon.
The CPC’s in-depth understanding of the essence of socialism has been gradually deepened in the practice of reform and opening up and socialist modernization. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in 1978 established the ideological line of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts, laying the ideological foundation for re-understanding socialism. The comprehensive development of reform and opening up and socialist modernization has provided practical experience for in-depth understanding of the essence of socialism. In the practice of promoting reform and opening up and modernization, Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out: “It is not possible without emancipating the mind, even including the question of what socialism is.” He first refuted some wrong views on socialism. He pointed out: “The economy can never be called socialism if it is in a state of stagnation for a long time”, “People’s lives can never be called socialism if they stay at a very low level for a long time”, “Poverty is not socialism, slow development is not socialism, and egalitarianism is not socialism”, “Planned economy is not equal to socialism”, “There is no socialism without democracy”, “How can we build socialism without spiritual civilization”, etc. He expressed the style of socialism from many aspects in a “negative” way. In the understanding of what socialism is, Deng Xiaoping began to explore the essence of socialism.
In May 1980, Deng Xiaoping first proposed the concept of “the essence of socialism”: “Socialism is a good term, but if it is not done well, cannot be correctly understood, and cannot adopt correct policies, then the essence of socialism cannot be reflected.” In September 1985, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his speech at the National Conference of the Communist Party of China: “In reform, we must always adhere to two fundamental principles, one is to take socialist public ownership as the main pillar, and the other is common prosperity.”
In December 1990, Deng Xiaoping clearly pointed out in a conversation: “Socialism is not a few people getting rich and the majority of people being poor. It is not like that. The greatest advantage of socialism is common prosperity, which is something that reflects the essence of socialism.”
After long-term thinking and summarization, Deng Xiaoping made a clear judgment on the essence of socialism for the first time in his speech during his inspection tour in the south in early 1992: “The essence of socialism is to liberate the productive forces, develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity.” This is a brand-new understanding of the essence of socialism and a new socialist view. This is the first time in the history of socialist thought that the essence of socialism has been so clearly discussed. This is an original contribution of the Communist Party of China to the theory of scientific socialism. This brand-new summary of the essence of socialism is truly a wake-up call and a breakthrough. It has cleared up the fog of understanding of socialism, refuted various erroneous understandings of socialism, and pointed out the direction for the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
First, Deng Xiaoping’s understanding of the essence of socialism is based on the unity of productive forces and production relations. He particularly emphasized the liberation and development of productive forces, correcting the historical lesson that socialism has long been discussed in an abstract way without productive forces, divorced from the objective requirements of productive forces, one-sidedly emphasized the transformation of production relations, and adhered to many things that restrict the development of productive forces and are not part of the essential attributes of socialism as “socialist principles”, thus hindering the healthy development of socialism. He regarded the liberation and development of productive forces as the fundamental task of socialism, and regarded the developed productive forces and the prosperity of humans’ lives as the fundamental tasks of socialism. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out:
“The economy is in a state of stagnation for a long time, which can never be called socialism, and the people’s lives are at a very low level for a long time. According to our own experience, when talking about socialism, we must first develop productive forces, which is the main thing. Only in this way can the superiority of socialism be demonstrated.”
This grasps the fundamental of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership of the people in creating the socialist system, and also reflects the strong desire and urgent demands of the entire people.
Second, Deng Xiaoping’s definition of the essence of socialism is understood from the unity of the purpose of building a socialist society and the way to achieve its purpose. Socialist thought emerged as a design and pursuit of a better life. Deng Xiaoping’s definition of the essence of socialism includes the purpose of building socialism and the way to achieve this purpose. The purpose is common prosperity, that is, to let all people live a rich and beautiful life; liberating and developing productive forces is the basis and the way. Therefore, Deng Xiaoping’s view of the essence of socialism can be summarized in one sentence: achieving common prosperity through liberating and developing productive forces. This not only reflects the reality of China’s socialist modernization construction, but also points out the essential difference between the socialist system and all exploitative systems from the aspect of what is the purpose of social production?.
Third, Deng Xiaoping’s view on the essence of socialism embodies the unity of efficiency and fairness. Liberating and developing productive forces, fully mobilizing the enthusiasm and creativity of the people, and concentrating on economic construction is to solve the problem of efficiency; achieving common prosperity and making the lives of all people better is to solve the problem of social fairness. By liberating and developing productive forces and ultimately achieving common prosperity, the unity of efficiency and fairness is embodied.
In short, Deng Xiaoping’s redefinition of the essence of socialism broke through the long-standing traditional concepts of socialism, elevated people’s understanding of socialism to a new level, opened up a way for Marxists to re-understand socialism based on the practical experience of socialist construction, and laid the theoretical foundation for building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
III. The Communist Party of China’s Re-understanding of the Essence of Socialism
A notable feature of the theory of scientific socialism is its practicality. Lenin called scientific socialism “the science of action”. In terms of its content, scientific socialism is the crystallization of the experience of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie by using a scientific world outlook and methodology to study the emergence and development of capitalist society. In other words, the theory of scientific socialism is the crystallization of the practical experience of the socialist movement. It is generated from the summary of practical experience and is constantly enriched and developed with the development of practice. This is the theoretical logic of scientific socialism, that is, the law of development of scientific socialism theory, which is to continuously enrich and develop with the development of practice. Entering the 21st century, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new period of development, namely, the period of building socialist modernization in an all-round way. With the development of the cause of building socialist modernization in an all-round way and the accumulation of practical experience in socialist construction, the Communist Party of China continues to deepen its understanding of the essence of socialism.
In July 2001, Jiang Zemin pointed out in his speech at the meeting celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China: “In building various undertakings of socialism with Chinese characteristics, all the work we carry out should focus on the material and cultural needs of the people, and at the same time, on promoting the improvement of the people’s quality, that is, we should strive to promote the all-round development of humans in the society.
This is the essential requirement of Marxism for building a new socialist society. We must continuously promote the all-round development of people on the basis of developing the material and spiritual civilization of socialist society.”
In November 2002, in the report of the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Jiang Zemin further emphasized that “promoting the all-round development of humans in the society is the essential requirement of socialism.”
In this way, promoting the all-round development of humans was included in the category of the essence of socialism, thereby deepening and expanding the understanding of the essence of socialism.
In February 2005, Hu Jintao pointed out in his speech at the seminar on “improving the ability to build a harmonious socialist society” for provincial and ministerial-level leading cadres: “maintaining and realizing social fairness and justice involves the fundamental interests of the vast majority of the people and is also the essential requirement of our country’s socialist system.” This raises fairness and justice to the height of the essential requirements of socialism. In October 2006, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee adopted the “Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues Concerning the Construction of a Socialist Harmonious Society”. This “Decision” proposed for the first time that social harmony is the essential attribute of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
In October 2012, the report of the 18th CPC National Congress put forward the basic requirements for building socialism with Chinese characteristics under new historical conditions: we must uphold the people’s dominant status; we must uphold the liberation and development of social productive forces; we must uphold the promotion of reform and opening up; we must uphold social fairness and justice; we must uphold the path of common prosperity; we must uphold the promotion of social harmony; we must uphold peaceful development; we must uphold the leadership of the Party.
The report of the 18th CPC National Congress regards upholding the people’s dominant position, upholding social fairness and justice, promoting social harmony and upholding the leadership of the Party as the basic requirements for building socialism with Chinese characteristics. These basic requirements are close to the essential requirements of socialism. This is the basic conclusion drawn from the profound summary of the experience of socialist construction over the past 60 years since the founding of New China, and it is a new understanding of the essence of socialism from the perspective of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. This reflects that the CPC continues to deepen and expand its understanding of the essence of socialism.
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. The Chinese Communists, with Xi Jinping as the main representative, have focused on the theme of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics. On the basis of carefully summarizing the practical experience of China’s socialist modernization construction, they have deeply explored the essential characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics and put forward a series of important judgments on the essential characteristics of socialism with Chinese characteristics, such as “the leadership of the Communist Party of China is the essential characteristic of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, “sharing is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, and “fairness and justice are the essential attributes of socialism with Chinese characteristics”. This is a further deepening of the understanding of the essence of socialism.
In June 2014, Xi Jinping pointed out at the 16th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee: “The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to uphold the leadership of the Communist Party of China. To do things well in China, we must first do things well for the Communist Party of China.” In September 2014, in his speech at the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the National People’s Congress, Xi Jinping once again emphasized: “The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Without the Communist Party of China, there would be no New China, and there would be no prosperity and strength of the New China. The fate of the Chinese nation depends on upholding the strong leadership core of the Communist Party of China.” In September of the same year, Xi Jinping once again emphasized in his speech at the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference: “The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the leadership of all democratic parties, groups, ethnic groups, classes, and all walks of life. The common choice of all Chinese people, including people from all walks of life, is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the fundamental guarantee for the development and progress of the work of the CPPCC. “In October 2016, Xi Jinping made “Some Principles on Intra-Party Political Life under the New Situation” and “Explanation of the Regulations on Intra-Party Supervision of the Communist Party of China” at the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, further emphasizing: “Adhering to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party Central Committee and establishing and maintaining the core of the Party’s leadership are the common aspirations of the whole Party and the people of all ethnic-national groups in the country, and are the urgent requirements for promoting comprehensive and strict governance of the Party and improving the Party’s creativity, cohesion and combat effectiveness. It is the fundamental guarantee for maintaining the correct direction of the development of the Party and the country’s cause.”
In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee adopted the “Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 13th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” (hereinafter referred to as the “Proposal”), which clearly put forward the people-centered development thought, proposed the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing, and regarded the development concept of “sharing” as the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. The “Proposal” pointed out: “Sharing is the essential requirement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. We must insist on development for the people, development relying on the people, and development results shared by the people, and make more effective institutional arrangements so that all people have a greater sense of gain in the co-construction and sharing of development, enhance development momentum, enhance people’s unity, and steadily move towards common prosperity.” Taking the leadership and sharing of the Communist Party of China as the essential characteristics and essential requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics shows that the Communist Party of China has further deepened its understanding of the essence of socialism.
It can be seen that with the deepening of the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the CPC’s understanding of the essence of socialism has gone through a process from abstract to concrete, from general to special. From summarizing the essence of socialism to summarizing the historical experience of China’s socialist construction, and then to understanding the essence of socialism with Chinese characteristics, it reflects the CPC’s deepening understanding of the essence of socialism.
Practice is the source of knowledge. The knowledge of objective things based on practice is vividly reflected in the dialectical process of knowledge. Lenin pointed out: “From vivid intuition to abstract thinking, and from abstract thinking to practice, this is the dialectical way to know the truth and objective reality.” Mao Zedong believed: “All relatively complete knowledge is composed of two stages: the first stage is perceptual knowledge, and the second stage is rational knowledge. Rational knowledge is the advanced development stage of perceptual knowledge.” The so-called “vivid intuition” is the perceptual knowledge formed on the basis of practice, and “abstract thinking” is the rational knowledge formed on the basis of perceptual knowledge. The process of knowledge formation is the leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge, and from rational knowledge to practice. Through this process, people’s understanding of objective things continues to deepen.
The process of cognition from practice to cognition, and then from cognition to practice, is also the dialectical movement process of people’s cognition from the particular to the general, and then from the general to the particular. Mao Zedong said: “In terms of the order of human cognition, it is always from the cognition of individual and particular things, gradually expanding to the cognition of general things.
People always first recognize the special essence of many different things, and then it is possible to go further to generalize and recognize the common essence of various things. When people have recognized this common essence, they will use this common cognition as a guide to continue to study various specific things that have not been studied or have not been studied in depth, and find out their special essence. Only in this way can we supplement, enrich and develop the cognition of this common essence, so that the cognition of this common essence will not become dry and dead. These are two processes of cognition: One is from the particular to the general, and the other is from the general to the particular. Human cognition always goes on in this way, and each cycle (as long as it is strictly in accordance with the scientific method) can improve human cognition and deepen human cognition. Here, from the particular to the general is from perceptual cognition to rational cognition on the basis of practice, that is, from practice to cognition; from the general to the particular is from rational cognition to practice. Therefore, the repeated cycle from the particular to the general and from the general to the particular is the repeated cycle from practice to cognition and from cognition to practice. After going from the particular to the general and then from the general to the particular, people’s cognition is gradually deepened and they are closer to the essence of things.
The same is true for the understanding of the essence of socialism. At first, people had a general understanding of socialism, such as seeking benefits for the majority of people, public ownership of the means of production, achieving social justice, and promoting the free and all-round development of all humans in the society.
As socialism was transformed from theory to practice, from practice in one country to practice in many countries, as people accumulated practical experience in socialist construction, and refined and summarized practical experience, their understanding of socialism gradually deepened, and these understandings containing socialist construction experience were raised to a rational level, thus deepening their general understanding of the essence of socialism. The Communist Party of China’s understanding of the essence of socialism has undergone such a process of understanding from shallow to deep, from concrete to abstract, and then from abstract to concrete.
IV. A New Theorization on the Essence of Socialism
Following the basic principles of scientific socialism, based on the historical experience of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and based on our current understanding, the essence of socialism can be summarized as follows:
Socialism is essentially a new type of social system.
The essential characteristics of this new type of social system are: taking the proletarian party as the core of leadership in the society, taking the people as the main actors, and gradually achieving common prosperity through the liberation and development of productive forces, constantly realizing social justice, and promoting the free and all-round development of humans.
This new summary of the essence of socialism has the following characteristics:
First, socialism is defined as a new social system and a new social form.
The socialist social form is a new mode of production, new lifestyle, new governance and new social outlook that is different from all other social forms.
Second, this new theory does not expound the essence of socialism in an abstract way, but focuses on summarizing the essential characteristics of the socialist system, that is, the basic characteristics determined by the essence of socialism, that is, the significant mark that distinguishes the socialist system from other social systems, such as the leadership of the proletarian party, the people’s democratic system with the people as the main actors, and the free and all-round development of humans.
Third, this new theoretical summary focuses on the value goals of socialism and the functions of the socialist system itself to define the essential characteristics of socialism. The proletarian party leads the people to create a new social system with the purpose of making the lives of most people better. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to realize social fairness and justice and common prosperity on the basis of liberating and developing productive forces, and promote the free and all-round development of humans in the society.
Fourth, this summary defines the essential characteristics of socialism as six key points: the leadership of the proletarian party; the dominant position of the people; the liberation and development of productive forces; common prosperity; social justice; and the free and all-round development of humans in the society.
This summary is based on the historical experience of socialist construction, especially the basic experience of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
It not only adheres to the basic principles of scientific socialism, but also embodies the innovative achievements made by the Communist Party of China in deepening its understanding of the essence of socialism since the reform and opening up.
Practice has no end, and our understanding of the laws of socialism will continue to rise to a new level in the future.