or any other activity, is not likely to occur on a fixed path.
Marxist economic theory is also characterized by a greater normative context than is free market economic theory. Posi tive economics deals with the explanation and prediction of actual resource allocation decisions made by consumers, produ cers, and, to a lesser extent, governments. By contrast, norm ative economics deals with the development of the criteria by which resource allocation decisions, together with the methods employed in their making, should be assessed.
Normative economics is value oriented. Indeed, norma tive economic theories vary widely, depending upon the values held by the economists formulating such theories. Marxist eco nomic policy is heavily dependent upon normative values. In the past, at least, outcomes have not been considered as 3important as an adherrence to Marxist values. In order to insure an adherrence to Marxist values, Marxist economic sys tems have, at least in the past, relied on the central control and development of economic goals, plans, and the implementa tion of those plans.
The laws of motion of socialism envisioned evolutionary development (Tokei, 1972). Had Lenin lived longer, or had some individual of a character different from that of Stalin suc ceeded Lenin, the world might have been provided with an oppor tunity to learn whether or not the postulated evolutionary motion of socialism would lead to the socialist ideal commun ism, and a stateless society. As it happened, however, Stalin changed the character of the socialist experiment by (1) imple menting a rigid centralized control over economic processes, and (2) institutionalizing one party political power.
One of the problems in the application of traditional Marxist economic theory to the PRC involves the Asiatic mode of production, and Marxist misconceptions concerning this mode of production. The common ownership of land by a village commune ...