Studies On Marxist Value Theory

Value Theory is the foundation of Marxist political economy. Without the Value Theory, Marxist political economy would be non-existent. Like the Surplus Value, Value is also a basic economic category in the theoretical system of Marxist political economy. It was on the basis of the scientific theories of Labor Value and Surplus Value that Karl Marx unveiled the operating law of capitalist economy. However, the Value Theory has become a major and long-standing theoretical problem of political economy, causing endless debates and controversies in the field of economics. This is due to two reasons. First, the later economists did not have a complete and accurate understanding of the essence of Marx's Value Theory. Secondly, they misunderstood and misinterpreted the original meaning of Marxist Value Theory for lack of knowledge in the dialectical method of Marxist political economy.Nevertheless, it bears great theoretical and practical significance to solve the problems concerning Value Theory. On the one hand, it plays an essential role in our adherence to and development of Marxist economics. On the other hand, Marxist Value Theory provides us with a theoretical weapon in criticizing various kinds of Western vulgar economics, enabling us to see the essence of economy through the economic phenomena.The Value Theory is a difficult and complicated issue both in theory and in practice. Heated debates have been held over this topic, resulting in two sharply divided camps, one in support of Marxist Value Theory, and the other against it. Within the first camp, there are three schools of thoughts, namely, the "Wide School", the "Narrow School", and the "Middle School". In recent years, with the establishment of socialist market economy and the deepening of economic and political restructuring, labor and value of labor theory have again become issues in dispute, the focus of which is on the following aspects: Does only labor create value? What labor creates value? Is the Value Theory monistic, dualistic or pluralistic? Is productive labor the same with value-creating labor? In spite of the numerous contentions and debates, the issue remains unsettled and there isn't any generally-acknowledged theoretical system so far, thus leaving a series of problems to be solved over this issue.On the basis of a thorough and systematic study of all the discussions of Marx on the Value Theory, the author discovers that many misreading and misunderstandings of the theory exist in the economic circles at home and abroad. This has prompted the author to choose the Value Theory as the topic of this doctoraldissertation, aiming at offering a whole new perspective in dealing with this problem which has obsessed the domestic and international economists for years.The thesis consists of two parts and ten chapters. The first part is composed of the first five chapters which mainly discuss the fate of the category of value in socialist society, including the major views on socialist commodity and value, classical writers' expositions about socialism and commodity relations, the relationship between socialism and value and labor voucher, relevant expounding and elucidations in by Engels and the operation problems of socialist economy. The second part is made up by the last five chapters in which the author studies the true meaning of Marxist value category, criticizes the non-Marxist value theory and the so-called "transformation problem". The five chapters are as follows: elucidation of Marxist Labor Theory, criticism on some prevalent value theories, researches done by Western economists on Marxist "transformation problem", researches done by Chinese economists on the same issue and the solution to this problem.This dissertation mainly studies the function of the value category in socialist society and the transformation problem, putting forward many opinions different from traditional and authoritative points of view, some of which are listed below:1. Socialist economic process is comprised of three links — production, distribution and consumption.2. Socialism and exchange relations are incompatible; the same is true between socialism and commodity relations.3. Socialism and value are totally compatible, and law of value is also the basic economic law of socialism.4. Socialism and labor voucher are completely incompatible, whereas labor voucher does not work in the human world.5. New interpretations are proposed concerning "product economy" and "planned economy".6. Surplus value category is a basic, central and key category in socialist economy.7. The principle of distribution for socialist consumption materials is "equivalence distribution" rather than "distribution on the basis of labor."8. Both Marx and Engles agree that socialist economies would undoubtedly be market economies.9. New understandings of an important article by Engles are stated.10. There is a differentiation between the structure of ownership and property rights.11. Explanations are offered about Marxist service value theory and market value theory.12. Systematic criticisms of some non-Marxist value theories are presented.13. Criticisms are given to the researches on Marxist transformation theory conducted by economists both at home and abroad.14. The dissertation proves the Marxist Transformation Theory for the first time in the world, arguing that the following two equations are tenable: 1) Total Sum of Average Profit = Total Sum of Surplus Value; 2) Total Sum of Production Price = Total Sum of Value. The method used to prove the above points is based on thedeep understandings of the dialectical essence of Marxist economics. 15. The General Equilibrium Theory of Karl Marx is proposed.In addition, many original and creative ideas are found in this dissertation in terms of the understanding and interpretation of some basic economic categories and some important articles written by classical writers.