This research provides an analysis of the development of the modes of production in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). As the PRC began as, and remains primarily a socialist economy, the focus of the analysis is on socialist economic concepts.
SOCIALIST ECONOMIC CONCEPTS, AND CHINA
At the theoretical level, Marxist economics is relatively close to classical economics. Classical economics represented the prevailing economic theory at the time Marx formulated his original principles. Karl Marx adapted classical economic theory, and, through the ensuing years, particularly since the creation of the Soviet Union, later day Marxist economists have further refined the theory.
Karl Marx, in his writings related to economics, contri bited several insights to the study of economics. First, Marx perceived that economic phenomena did not exist within a static equilibrium (Spiegel, 1952). The theories of Karl Marx also marked a significant departure from many of his contemporary economists, when he divorced the concept of value from land and other natural resources (Tucker, 1978). Marx built on the Ricardian theory that labor inputs created value. Karl Marx, however, felt that labor inputs were the sole determinants of
1 2value. This approach remains as a primary tenet of Marxist economic thought (Blaug, 1988). There exists, however, a great deal of controversy over the concept, even among Marxist econo mists.
Marx also conceived of economics as an evolutionary science (Hausman, 1984). Although contemporary Marxist econo mists continue to view economics as an evolutionary process, they are, also, somewhat rigid, in that they feel that the only direction that such an evolution will follow is from capitalism to a somewhat utopian socialism. This rigidity of thought tends to rob Marxist economics of one its fundamental strengths a recognition that economics is an evolutionary process. Evolution, in economics...