Evolution Of The Concept Of The Economic Base

The theory of economic foundation is the most important theory of Marxism. Marx and Engels established the theory of the economic foundation after about fifty years of hard searching. Marx and Engels thought that the economic foundation contained various different production relations.Nevertheless in the theoretical community there are different perspectives on the economic foundation . In the 1950s a major dispute emerged in the philosophical circle .There were two main opinions. Yang Xianzhen held on the theory of comprehensive economic foundation while Ai Siqi held on the theory of sole economic foundation .As China practiced planned economy in the past ,the theory of sole economic foundation had been prevalent.As the market economy has been firmly established in our country and non-public economy has gained rapid development ,we deem that the theory of comprehensive economic foundation is more geared to the market economy.