An Interpretation Of The Harmonious Society In The Perspective Of The Western Maxism Modernity

China has long been pursuing modernization since modern times. In spite of the specific historical and social conditions different from those in western countries, we will have inevitably been confronted with the similar difficulties arising from modernity. At present, the socialist modernization in China is entering a new era. On the one hand, economic development and social progress is proceeding steadily in the established direction. On the other hand, those inherent contradictions and conflicts have also gradually emerged, causing a real bottleneck in the course of reform and development. Not only have conflicts between economic development and environmental protection become increasingly conspicuous, but the gap between the rich and the poor and the attendant polarization of interests altogether turn out to be a menace to our social stability. In fact, all these problems and contradictions are the typical symptoms of modernity. Therefore, how to deal with them has been a broad issue we are faced with in our socialist modernization. Now, that does not mean any respective development and progress in economy, society or politics, but a large-scale integrated project to establish a socialist civilization. It is against this backdrop that creating a harmonious socialist society has become a theme of our times. However, theoretical guidance for a harmonious society is our first priority, in which resources available for the theory is critical. What we should do is not only to draw nutrients from our traditional civilization, but to explore a new theoretical perspective as well.As a powerful and influential trend of thought in contemporary western countries, Western Marxism launches profound and constructive criticism of long-standing issues concerning modernity, offering a wealth of ideas to overcome the drawbacks of modernity in the Western society. Besides, as it can afford us salutary lessons for handling the problems faced by the Chinese society, it will be adopted to interpret a harmonious society in China from another theoretical perspective.Based on modernity of the Western Maxism and the analysis of its paradox, this thesis introduces its theories of criticism and construction to reveal the significance that modernity implies in the process of creating a harmonious society, especially on the ground of the modernization practices in China. Thereby a new theoretical vision is to be opened up.