Born in 1925 into a family of educators, Mr. Liu Shibai has loved literature and social sciences since he was a child. Since the student days coincided with the plundering of old China by imperialist powers outside the country and the old and new warlords and the Chinese people at a time when they were in dire straits, the surging anti-Japanese salvation movement and the spread of proletarian revolutionary culture had a great impact on Liu Shibai. He began to read works on Marxist philosophy and political economy, especially Capital published by Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., which became his guide to enter the palace of economics. In 1942, Liu Shibai was admitted to the Department of Economics of Wuhan University, where he was able to systematically read a large number of original works of Western economics, including Marx's economic works, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, David Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, and Marshall's Principles of Economics. In 1946, after graduating from Wuhan University, Liu Shibai was hired by the Department of Economics of Sichuan University, and began to engage in economic theory research, mainly teaching courses on political economy, foreign economic history and contemporary bourgeois economic theory. After 1958, the focus of his research shifted from the contemporary capitalist economy to the issue of socialist economic theory, and he actively participated in the discussion of the research object of political economy and the effect of socialist economy in the domestic academic circles, which laid the foundation for his future research on socialist economic theory and institutional reform. Since the beginning of reform and opening up, Liu Shibai has carried out a large number of innovative studies on major economic theoretical issues such as the research object of political economy, ownership and the socialist commodity economy, the law of value and the market mechanism, the household responsibility system, the transition to the market system, and the reform of the property rights system of state-owned enterprises, which has played a positive academic role in promoting China's exploration and construction of a socialist market economic system.
Liu Shibai's academic exploration reflects three distinctive characteristics. First, for the all-round reform of China's economic system. His research on reform is not limited to a certain field, but focuses on the overall situation and carries out independent research from multiple directions and perspectives. Second, based on China's practice and China's national conditions. Guided by the basic principles and methods of Marxist political economy, he put forward his own academic views on many "new things" since China's reform and opening up. Third, we should persist in integrating theory with practice. He firmly believed that only by taking root in vivid practice can we stimulate the vitality of theory, realize theoretical innovation, and then promote the development of theory. It is precisely because he has adhered to the forefront of China's reform and opening up practice that many of his theoretical viewpoints have strong insight and persuasiveness, and this fine style of study and academic character have made him a model for future generations to study.
one
A dialectical understanding of the socialist market economy
In February 1979, Liu Shibai clearly defined the attributes of the socialist economy as the socialist commodity economy in his article "On the Development of the Socialist Commodity Economy and the Utilization of the Market", challenging the traditional perception that the planned economy is the essential characteristic of socialism. Liu Shibai pointed out that in developing and perfecting the socialist commodity economy, the most crucial thing is to give full play to and make use of the positive role of the socialist market. This requires taking Marxism as the guide and conducting in-depth research and exploration on the nature, scope, structure, mechanism, laws, and role of the socialist market. He also pointed out that Marxist political economy is basically the theory of production plus the theory of distribution, but lacks the theory of the market. Due to the constraints of traditional theoretical concepts, the formulation of this theoretical understanding required great courage at that time. In April of the same year, Liu Shibai further put forward the concept of socialist market economy and discussed it through the article "On the Management of Socialist Planning and the Utilization of Market Mechanism". In his view, the market economy has the nature of a general economic category and refers to this kind of commodity economy produced for the market. However, the traditional understanding that "the market economy is capitalism" lacks scientific basis, because the market economy is a commodity economy produced for the market, which is neither an independent mode of production nor an economic category unique to capitalist society, but a general economic category that has sprouted since the disintegration of the primitive commune and exists in almost all economic forms of human society. This view was subsequently written into the "Decision of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the Economic System" adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1984. Since then, the "development of socialist commodity economy" has become an important breakthrough in the practice of China's economic system reform since the reform and opening up.
In July 1992, Liu Shibai pointed out in his article "My View of the Socialist Market Economy": Today, in the 90s of the 20 th century, the shortcomings of the traditional planned economic system have long been very clearly exposed, and it is already a very urgent task to carry out fundamental reform of it. This is the proposition of the concept of "socialist market economy," which is a logical development in which China has summed up its experience in a timely manner and deepened its theoretical understanding in the great practice of reform. What is a Market Economy? Liu Shibai believed that in a broad sense, a market economy is a commodity economy, and Lenin had already discussed this. In a narrow sense, the real market economy is a commodity economy under the conditions of socialized large-scale production, a commodity economy in which the market is fully developed, manifested in a complete market system, and the role of market regulation is brought into full play, and it is a developed commodity economy. Further, the connotation of the socialist market economy is embodied in the basic characteristics of five aspects. First, the market economy should not reject planning, but should make full use of and give full play to the functions of planning, properly regulate and control the macroeconomy, and guide the microeconomy. Second, the market economy does not exclude the best economic functions, nor does it exclude the state from organizing and setting up enterprises in certain fields. The socialist market economy needs to effectively play the functions of economic regulation, planning, supervision, and service. The third is the socialist nature of the market economy, which persists in taking public ownership as the mainstay. Fourth, the market economy takes the market mechanism as the basic regulator, and the spontaneity and blindness of economic activities can be restricted and guided with the help of the planning function, so as to realize the orderly operation of the national economy as a whole. Fifth, the market economy has the drawbacks of blind production, economic fluctuations, and widening income disparities. Under the conditions of socialism, the above-mentioned drawbacks can be reduced as much as possible with the help of planning functions and regulation and control.
Because China's theoretical circles at that time mechanically and dogmatically understood Marx and Engels' expositions on the public-ownership society and copied the highly centralized planned economic system of the Soviet Union, they put the market economy and the public ownership in opposition to each other in economic theory, holding that the relationship between the two was incompatible. Liu Shibai believes that the issue of the "compatibility" between the market economy and the socialist public ownership system can only be solved in practice, not in the study. Represented by the "Southern Jiangsu Model", the market economy has transformed China's traditional rural and urban collective economy, so that the latter has acquired a mechanism and organizational form compatible with the market. Since then, the rural land shareholding cooperative system has further enhanced its compatibility with the market mechanism with clearer subject property rights. These explorations and innovations, based on China's real problems, have become a perfect answer to the long-debated question of "whether the market is compatible with socialism" in the economics community. Since then, the organic integration of the market mechanism with the basic socialist economic system is no longer a question of whether or not the two can be achieved, but a question of how to better integrate the two and achieve the greatest degree of "compatibility."
II. II. II
Profoundly reveal the pluralism of socialist ownership
In addition to the study of the socialist market economy, Liu Shibai also made major theoretical contributions to the adjustment and improvement of the socialist ownership structure, especially the exploration of new forms of public ownership. In the second issue of Economic Research Journal in 1979, he published an article entitled "On Economic Reform and the Perfection of Socialist Ownership by the Whole People," in which he put forward a brand-new viewpoint that the socialist "ownership by the whole people" should be "incomplete," and expounded from the theoretical level the inevitability and rationality of transforming state-owned enterprises that are unified in revenue and expenditure and eat "big pot rice" into business entities that are responsible for their own profits and losses. In 1981, at the first national seminar on the theory of ownership, in response to the long-standing socialist "pure public ownership theory", "single public ownership", and "the ownership of the whole people is equal to state-owned enterprises", Liu Shibai put forward the "three natures" viewpoint of the plurality of the ownership structure, the diversity of ownership forms, and the multi-level nature of the specific forms of public ownership in socialist society, which immediately aroused strong repercussions from all walks of life. He believes that socialist public ownership, as the main body, will coexist with other forms of socialist ownership for a long time, and in addition to the whole people and collectives, there are also various forms of joint ownership, such as "all people + collectives," "all people + collectives + individuals," and "collectives + collectives." In the form of national ownership, there will be state-owned state-owned, state-owned enterprise operation, state-owned collective leasing, state-owned individual leasing, etc.; In terms of capital structure and distribution structure, there will be the absorption of part of the staff funds and the implementation of dividends according to shares, and can also absorb collective funds, social individual funds and investment in other enterprises and other forms of dividends according to shares. In 1985, based on the theories of Marxist classic writers on socialist ownership, combined with the reality of China's reform, Liu Shibai made a profound argument on the basic connotation and movement law of socialist ownership, and thus published a monograph "Research on Socialist Ownership".
Since 1986, Liu Shibai has published a series of articles on the reform of the property rights system of state-owned enterprises, and has made unremitting explorations on the theory of socialist property rights. He believes that the reason why the various reform measures since the beginning of reform and opening up have failed to make China's enterprises truly revitalize is that the reform of the property rights system is relatively lagging behind. In order for an enterprise to become a business entity, it must first be a property owner, have the ownership or control of property, and enjoy "property interests" and bear "property responsibilities". Due to the lack of a legal person property mechanism in China, enterprises are not endowed with the responsibilities, rights, and interests necessary for the market, and it is impossible to truly realize the behavioral characteristics of being self-responsible for profits and losses and owning business entities. Therefore, in building a market mechanism in China, the focus is on reforming the property rights system of state-owned enterprises, that is, in accordance with the principle of separating ownership and management rights, we should explore and build a legal person property system that ensures state ownership and strengthens the management rights of enterprises, and thus establishes a modern enterprise system. This requires deepening the reform of state-owned enterprises and transforming the single state-owned property rights system into a pluralistic property rights system; It is necessary to transform the highly centralized state-owned and state-run property rights system into a property rights system that separates the two powers, and to transform the vague property rights relationship into a clear property rights relationship. In 1993, Liu Shibai participated in the drafting of documents such as the pilot of the modern enterprise system in Sichuan Province and the "33 Articles" of the reform of state-owned enterprises. He clearly pointed out that it is necessary to strategically readjust the layout of the state-owned economy, persist in advancing and retreating, and do some things and leave others undone. In the strategic adjustment of the layout of the state-owned economy, it should be completed through asset reorganization. To do a good job in invigorating large and small state-owned enterprises, we must have a good mechanism, a good product, and a good leader. Among them, the system is the prerequisite, the system determines the mechanism, and the mechanism determines the vitality.
Three
Systematically expound the theory of the primary stage of socialism
Liu Shibai believes that according to the development concept of materialist dialectics, everything is in the process of movement from quantitative change to qualitative change, and these different qualitative states make the movement of things appear in stages. Marx and Engels used the materialist dialectical concept of development to analyze the movement of human society, and created a scientific theory that human society should go through five social forms: primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society, socialist society and communist society. However, Marxist historical materialism not only divides the upward movement of human society into five stages, that is, five social forms, but also further divides the same social form into several small stages. The essence of these small stages is the same, but there are some local qualitative differences. For the communist social form, Marx further divided it into two stages: socialism and communism. It can be seen that dividing the same social form into several stages with different degrees of development and maturity has always been the scientific method used by the writers of the Marxist classics to study history.
According to the historical materialism founded by Marx, any social form is a three-dimensional structure based on the economic foundation, and the economic foundation is closely dependent on and determined by the material foundation. Therefore, the division of the stages of development of socialist society must be based on the relations of production and the productive forces. Specifically, in order to correctly answer the question of the stage of development of socialism after the end of the transition period from capitalism to socialism, one must consider both the nature and condition of the relations of production and the nature and condition of the productive forces. Broadly speaking, the development of socialism may have the following three types. First, socialism was born out of highly developed capitalism. On the one hand, because the socialist relations of production, mainly public ownership and distribution according to work, are relatively mature and perfect, and on the other hand, the development of a high degree of modern socialization of production means that the material and technical basis of socialism is mature, and socialism at this time will manifest itself in a mature form relatively rapidly. Such a country will enter the advanced stage of socialism relatively quickly without going through a primary stage. Second, socialism was born from capitalism with a medium level of development. Because the socialist relations of production have certain immature characteristics, and the material and technical basis of socialism also has certain immature characteristics -- for example, the development of the productive forces has not yet reached the level of the developed capitalist countries, and socialism at this time will have certain immature characteristics. Such a country will have to go through a short period of primary or intermediate stage of socialism, and then advance to an advanced stage of socialism. Third, socialism was born out of a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society where capitalism was underdeveloped. Because the socialist relations of production still have quite distinct immaturity -- such as the low-level nature of the structure of public ownership, the incompleteness of public ownership is very distinct, and at the same time, the multi-level and imbalance of the productive forces are very obvious, so there is a lag in the formation of the material and technological basis of socialism. Such a country will inevitably go through a fairly long and stable initial stage of socialism, and then gradually transition to the advanced stage of socialism, and even go through an intermediate stage of socialism.
According to the above division, China clearly belongs to the third category of countries. Due to the nature of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the level of productive forces in modern China is very low, and even after the transitional period is basically over and socialist production relations are established, the social productive forces will continue to have the nature of traditional productive forces for a long time, and it will take a long time of 100 years to realize the modernization of production and social modernization. Therefore, China will be in the primary stage of socialism for a fairly long period of time, and this is determined by China's special national conditions and the special history of the development of socialism in China. It can be seen that in judging and dividing the stages of development of socialism, it is necessary to persist in taking the relations of production as the direct criterion and to introduce the criterion of productive forces. When judging the stage of development of socialism in our country, by applying this double criterion to examine the nature and characteristics of both the economic foundation of socialism and the material foundation of socialism, we can draw a scientific conclusion that China is still in the primary stage of socialism after the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production is basically completed, and at the same time, it will help to make a scientific outlook on the future development stage of socialism in China.
Four
Promote theoretical innovation while insisting on applying it to the world
Liu Shibai believes that economics is the study of application, and theoretical research should be innovated and developed on the basis of reality, so as to always serve socialist economic construction and reform. For this reason, he advocated that socialist political economy must be committed to making the people rich and the country strong, and clearly proposed that the basic content of socialist political economy should be "the study of people's wealth." In 1992, Liu Shibai's book "Principles of Socialist Economics" took "people's wealth" as a red line running through the book, and emphasized that the realization of the maximum value-added, rational distribution and optimal use of people's wealth should be regarded as the basic content of socialist political economy, and then the people's wealth was raised to a theoretical form. On the basis of this understanding, the fundamental task of socialism lies in developing the productive forces and achieving common prosperity for all workers. In his 2005 book Modern Wealth, Liu Shibai put forward an important academic proposition on the diversification of wealth structure. He believes that the structure of wealth is determined by the productive forces, the state of social production, and the industrial structure. Driven by high and new technologies represented by information technology, the world is in an era of all-round development of production, especially the rapid growth of cultural consumption demand has promoted the rise of the cultural industry. As a result, the three-dimensional industrial structure composed of material production, service production, and knowledge and spiritual production has become the basic feature of modern industrial structure, and material products, service products, and knowledge and spiritual products have become the three major components of modern social wealth. Among them, cultural elements are widely integrated with material production and service production, and this mutual promotion and interaction between culture and economy has become an important driving force for economic growth and social development.
In addition, Liu Shibai's monograph "Research on China's Economic Excess Operation in the Transition Period" published in 2000 comprehensively analyzed the macro problems of China's economic operation in the transition period. For example, he pointed out that there were two different types of demand deficits in the operation of the market economy at that time. One is the lack of operational requirements. The market economy is an economy in which the main body makes independent decisions and operates spontaneously, and the purchasing behavior of the main body that forms demand is spontaneous. From the perspective of supply, the production that forms the main body of supply under the conditions of market economy is spontaneous and unstable. Therefore, the spontaneous force of the market determines that the phenomenon of insufficient demand or excessive demand often occurs in the operation of the market economy, which is a temporary operational total imbalance, and will return to equilibrium under the effect of the market. The other is the lack of institutional demand. In a market economy, the income of the main body that forms the purchasing power of the market is constrained by the basic social property system. The private monopoly and unfair distribution of property under the capitalist system have led to the growth of the people's income lagging behind the growth of productive capacity, which in turn has led to a shortage of demand for the ability to pay. In the socialist market economy, a distribution structure oriented to common prosperity and a sound social security system can ensure that the people's income grows in line with the growth of the aggregate supply level. The socialist market economy also has the phenomenon of insufficient operational demand (or excessive demand), but with the help of effective macroeconomic regulation and control, the total balance and the stable operation of the economy can be realized. For another example, since the mid-90s of the 20th century, China's economic operation has undergone fundamental changes, from the previous shortage to oversupply. Liu Shibai summarized the characteristics of this surplus as the breadth of the scope, the continuous decline of prices at a low level, the prominence of excess production capacity, the sustainability of excess operation, and the slowdown of GDP growth. The reasons for the surplus include the sharp decline in export demand since the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the slowdown in the growth of investment demand and consumer demand, the imperfect distribution mechanism in the process of transition, the aggregate negative effect of inhibiting immediate consumption in the comprehensive promotion of reform, the defects of the circulation system and purchase and sales methods, the lag in the transformation of consumption concepts and behaviors, and the lack of effective supply growth. With regard to the cyclical nature of socialist economic operation, Liu Shibai believes that under the socialist market economic system, because economic activities are subordinate to the spontaneous market mechanism, the volatility and cyclical nature of economic operation are inevitable. In the context of cyclical changes in the deepening stage of economic reform, it is necessary to vigorously stimulate investment demand and pay attention to combining it with expanding consumer demand. It can be seen that the above theoretical analysis and policy suggestions still have important reference value.
**The general secretary pointed out that the era is the mother of thought, and practice is the source of theory. There is no end to practice, and there is no end to theoretical innovation. We must keep up with the times theoretically, constantly understand the laws, and constantly promote theoretical innovation. Throughout the trajectory of Mr. Liu Shibai's academic research, from the research object of political economy to the research method, from the primary stage of socialism to the pluralism of socialist ownership, from the socialist market economy to the subject property rights, from the system transformation to the reform of state-owned enterprises, from scientific and technological innovation to modern wealth, etc., it clearly depicts a logical main line of socialist economic theory innovation and practical development with Chinese characteristics. In his more than 70 years of teaching, education and academic research, he has always adhered to the guidance of Marxism, and truly understood, believed and applied Marxism. We have always adhered to the combination of Marxist theory and contemporary Chinese practice, and personally promoted the Sinicization and modernization of Marxism; Always adhere to the root of the land of China to do learning, for the party and the people to learn and make theories. He consciously became a firm believer and faithful practitioner of the lofty ideals of communism and the common ideal of socialism with Chinese characteristics, vividly demonstrating the ideological trajectory of a Marxist economist corresponding to the times, reality and the masses.
*: China Social Science Network-China Social Science Daily.
Author: Ding Renzhong (Dean and Professor, Institute of Marxist Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics).