Principles of Political Economy

Author: Liu Dongsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Marxist political economy takes the capitalist mode of production as its research object. Through the analysis of commodity-money relations under capitalism, it reveals on the one hand the essence of capitalist production relations and their laws of motion, and on the other hand provides an in-depth analysis of the operating mechanisms of commodity economy, as well as the fundamental characteristics and laws of the market economy. The theoretical framework of Marxist political economy offers significant inspiration for grasping the logical analytical method from the concrete to the abstract and from the phenomenon to the essence; it also holds great importance for understanding the characteristics and operating laws of our socialist market economy.
This book first starts from the relationship between commodities and money to reveal the basic features and operational mechanisms of the commodity economy. It proposes that with the development of production technology and changes in the mode of production, the form of commodities and the labor that creates value must also change. The labor of researchers, managers, and others also creates value for commodities. Secondly, it argues that capital has the generality of reproduction and can only fulfill its reproductive requirements through movement. The market economy provides an objective environment for the movement of capital. However, in different social formations, due to the different nature of the division of surplus labor, it reflects different economic relations. In capitalist society, this is manifested as the relationship of capital hiring labor. Under socialist conditions, although surplus labor also exists, it has a completely different nature under a socialist economy with public ownership. Finally, it proposes that the development of contemporary capitalist economies has led to changes in capitalist production relations, with the state playing an increasingly important role in economic life. In today's era of economic globalization, the government's intervention in the economic life of capitalist countries has not altered the essence of the capitalist economy.