Contemporary Western Market Socialism: Theoretical Exploration, Comparative Analysis, Reference Value

Contemporary Western Market Socialism is the theory of pursuing efficiency and fairness "win-win". In order to acquire the same or even higher efficiency than capitalist market economy, contemporary western market socialists emphasize that the market mechanism should play a leading role in the socialist market economy; in order to achieve a certain degree of social equity, they have designed a number of public agencies and specific programs which can ensure fairness. Although these programs is the idea in theory, lacking of mature practice as the basis of their experience, these theoretical models put forward many new and valuable ideas and concepts according to the development and changes in the contemporary world. These ideas have an important reference for the further development and refinement of China's Socialist Market Economy.This thesis is the study of Contemporary Western Market Socialism. Fully explore the reasons for the emergence, the typical models, the theory landmark, theoretical contribution and defects and essence, as well as the theoretical prospects. The end-result of the thesis is the reference values of Contemporary Western Market Socialism to China's Socialist Market Economy, which is the purpose and significance of studying this topic, which is also an innovation. The doctor thesis can be divided into five chapters:Introduction of this thesis introduces the background and significance of this topic, domestic research and abroad research, research ideas and the framework, research methods and innovations.Chapter I explains the basic theory of Market Socialism, including theoretical source, meaning and development stage of market socialism. The resource allocation theory of western economists and the opinion of social reformists constitute the theoretical source of Market Socialism; Market Socialism has many kinds of meanings, in order to grasp its meanings, I classify its meanings into two types, these are"the combination of public ownership and market economy"and"the value of the socialist goals". On this basis, I propose my own understanding of Market Socialism, that is, Market Socialism is the theoretical concepts or models which combine the efficiency of the market mechanism with the fair values of socialism. About the stage of development of Socialist Market, we can find the division method from two stages to five stages. At the basis of the previous results, I divide the stage of development of Socialist Market into three stages: the 20th century, 20, 30's to 50's is the stage of the theoretical establishment; the 20th century, from the 50's to 80's, is the stage of the theoretical development; the 20th century, from the 80's to the present, is the stage of the theoretical beyond. The definition of meaning and development stages of the Market Socialism is an innovation of this thesis.Chapter II analyzes the reasons for the emergence, the typical models and the theoretical landmark of Contemporary Western Market Socialism. Contemporary Western Market Socialism is the product of reflecting to the bankruptcy of Soviet Union and East European socialist model, is the product of rational criticizing to the problems of contemporary capitalism, is the product of exceeding democratic socialism. We can find that Contemporary Western Market Socialism is an active exploration and innovation to the socialism in the circumstance of socialism suffered unprecedented setbacks. It reflects the vitality of western socialism. There are many kinds of model types in the theory of Contemporary Western Market Socialism, some focus on economic efficiency, some focus on public ownership, some give prominence to the economic democracy, distribution of equality and social justice, others regard market socialism as a worker co-operatives, etc. .According to Roemer's classification in his "the future of socialism", this chapter focuses on commenting three typical modes: manager managed mode, worker managed mode and social governance mode. From these modes, we can sort out the theory landmark of Contemporary Western Market Socialism. In contemporary western market socialists'view, socialist public ownership is the social ownership; market mechanism is the dominant mechanism for allocating resources; socialism is a series of value targets including equality, freedom, democracy and efficiency; fairness is more important than efficiency in income distribution. Chapter III discusses the contribution, defects and essence of Contemporary Western Market Socialism, and then predicts its prospect. Analyzing the attitude to Contemporary Western Market Socialism, we can find that some is entirely sure, some is completely negative, and there is also the range between the two opinions. Analyzing the views of supporters', opponents'and middlers', combining with the Marxist analytical methods, I summed up the contribution, defects and essence of Contemporary Western Market Socialism. Contemporary Western Market Socialism encourages the World Socialist Movement, develops the theory of scientific socialism, achieve a theoretical innovation in the relationship between efficiency and fairness, have a comprehensive and in-depth inquiry to the market economy, these are its theoretical contribution. However, its theoretical shortcomings are very obvious. It denies that public ownership is the basis of socialism, falls into dilemma of either relying on the market or surpassing the market. The most important thing is that the theory can not solve the "transition" problem, is a kind of a "utopian" nature of social theory. Essentially, Contemporary Western Market Socialism is a reformist idea, can't say in the same day with the Marxist scientific socialism. In this chapter, another important task is probing the feasibility of theoretical blueprint of Contemporary Western Market Socialism. Although its theoretical models are far from the reality, with a certain degree of "utopia" color, it is by no means meaningless fantasy. Contemporary western market socialists construct their theory from the existing social reality, sum up the experience and lessons of the traditional socialism, develop capitalist and social democracy. They also conduct an in-depth study and discussion to the issues of combination of socialism and market economy. However, the "transition" is the weakest link in its theory. Due to the lack of the main forces for change, the future of Contemporary Western Market Socialism is worrying.Chapter IV is a comparison between Contemporary Western Market Socialism and China's Socialist Market Economy. I discuss the similarities and differences between them, and the aspects that the latter exceeds the former. The similarities are: Both insist the social values, regard the market as a major regulatory mechanism, believe that socialism needs public ownership, and public ownership forms are diversified. Both of them advocate that income distribution principle should take his work as the main body, the coexistence of a variety of distribution methods. The differences are: First, they have different recognition to the nature of socialism. Contemporary western market socialists believe that the essence of socialism is the realization of democracy, freedom, equality, efficiency, etc.; yet Deng Xiaoping summed up the essence of socialism as "the liberation of productive forces, the development of productive forces, eliminating exploitation and polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity." Second, they have different views on the status of the public ownership. In the theories of Contemporary Western Market Socialism, public ownership is a means of achieving socialist goals, not a basic socialist economic system; yet China's Socialist Market Economy always regards public ownership as the basis of the economic system. Third, they have different views to the value standard of distribution. Capitalism is efficient but unfair, so contemporary western market socialists look on "fairness" as the first principle of income distribution; in our country, there is a historical process in understanding the relationship between efficiency and equity. From "giving priority to efficiency, with due consideration to fairness "principle to" the initial distribution and redistribution are necessary to properly handle the relationship between efficiency and fairness, greater emphasis on fair redistribution "principle, it marks an innovation in the theory of China's income distribution. Fourth, they have different opinions to the role of government intervention. In contemporary western market socialists'opinion, the role of government is to correct the "market failure"; yet China's socialist market economy regards the government as an important market player, not only a supplement to "market failure".As a practical theory, China's Socialist Market Economy achieves a breakthrough to Contemporary Western Market Socialism in three aspects. First, achieve a breakthrough to the negative view of the state-owned system. Contemporary western market socialists adopt a critical and negative attitude to the state-owned system. But in our country, the state-owned system is the backbone of public ownership, and the state-owned system is leading all kinds of ownership. Dominated by the state-owned system is the essence of China's socialist economic system. Second, achieve a breakthrough to the theory of government intervention. Contemporary western market socialists regard the government intervention as a supplement to "market failure", it plays a seriously limited role; yet China attaches great importance to the organic combination between market regulation and government intervention, put the market into a benign orbit by developing the system in advance, strengthening the supervision in doing things and remedying after things. Third, achieve a breakthrough to the idea of a blueprint. So far, Contemporary Western Market Socialism only has theoretical character, yet China's Socialist Market Economy not only has the theoretical character, but also has the practical character. Practical character is higher than theoretical character, and practical character is more abundant and realistic than the latter.Chapter V analyzes the reference values of Contemporary Western Market Socialism to China's Socialist Market Economy. The socialist market economic theory is a great challenging imagination, if we can eventually establish a genuine socialist market economic model, it will be a great enrichment and development to the ideology of scientific socialism. However, it will be a great challenge to combine public ownership with market economy, it is bound to encounter many problems and difficulties. Along with more than three decades of China's market reform process, especially when the market economy experiences some twists and turns, it will appears discordant voices against the market-oriented reform. Therefore, the socialist market economic theory is not the end of the mandate, but rather put forward an epoch-making historical topic that need to be completed in theory and practice. Contemporary Western Market Socialism and China's Socialist Market Economy are faced with a common subject– achiving an organic combination between socialism and market economy. The same historical task makes them can learn from each other. We should use their positive ideas to inspire us and solve our problems. Contemporary Western Market Socialism's value goals, such as democracy and equality, provide ideological inspiration to China's Socialist Market Economy. It is conducive to building a harmonious society. Its idea of combining public ownership and market economy broadens our thinking: we must vigorously develop the mixed ownership economy, let public ownership adapt to the market economy. Its concept of efficiency and equity will be helpful to resolve China's existing problems in the area of income distribution. Particularly their "fairness first" principle warns us that we must solve the current issue of China's wealth gap. Its theory of government intervention is also inspired. The government can not control too much or too little, government intervention should choose an appropriate way.