A Research On The Former Yugoslavia "Practice Group" Social Critical Theory

" Practice Group" is an important new genre of Marxism in Eastern Europe. Producing asignificant impact, its critical social theory and practice in Europe and the world haveenriched and developed Marxism via its research on the concept of practice, the autonomoussocialist and freedom, democracy and self-government theory." Inheriting the critical spiritof Marxism," Practice Group" carries a powerful criticism on Stalin modelsocialism,meanwhile made in-depth reflection on Marxism theoretical issues, such as puttingforward a new concept of practice from the perspective of value theory, attaching importanceto people’s status and role in practice, emphasizing on freedom and individuality to people’sdevelopment and the dynamic vitality to the reform of enterprises and society. TheCommunist Party of Yugoslavia,led by Tito, actively promoted the market-oriented reformand the enterprises’ decentralization, giving people more freedom and autonomy in order toactivate people’s enthusiasm and initiative on the socialist cause,which had a very significanteffect on resisting and eliminating bureaucracy and formalism, strengthening people’ssupervision and management to the Party and the state and the elimination of corruption. Intoday’s world, emancipating the mind and innovative spirit advance the socialist cause tomake progress.It’s worth remembering the failure of " Practice Group" and the disintegration ofYugoslavia. It was eagerness for instant success,violation against economic laws as well aslack of experience and complicated domestic situation that made the exploration of theroad to socialism very tough. In addtion,people should be vigilant to the "peacefulevolution" of developed capitalist countries to the socialist system. Research on " practicegroup"’s social critical theory enables us to remember lessons that history has given us and tofind out problems or deficiencies by analyzing the socialist autonomous mode objectively inorder to avoid mistakes made in future’s study and practice, which is not only responsible forthe history, but also an important contribution to the cause of socialism.This paper is divided into three parts.The first part mainly studies the social conditions, theoretical background andthe representatives of " practice group". It originated from Frankfurt School which believes that social critical theory intends to criticize and transform the present social system in steadof accepting and maintaining it. The purpose of criticizing is to make it a more just and morehumane society." Practice Group" criticized dogmatic socialist model represented by Stalinas well as contemporary capitalist system. Its theoretical background is criticism and responseto French positivism which denies human subjectivity and initiative and considers people aspassive beings for the purpose of making them become a victim of heredity and environmentand which is truly a bourgeois ideology." The main representatives of “Practice Group" were.The second part studies the content of " practice group"’s social critical theory, includingcriticism to western consumerism culture,to Stalin ’s socialist model, to a variety of non-humanitarian phenomena and to autonomous socialism." Practice Group " thinks thatcapitalism has created a huge accumulation of material wealth, leading people towardmaterialism, pleasure and excessive focus on the self, but ignoring its hidden crisis: thedepression of "things" to "people" and spiritual pain. Stalin model not only did not eliminatealienation, but aggravated the economic, political and cultural alienation. Autonomy inenterises is a voluntary association of producers no need of any political mediation.Differentproduction associations are based on free exchange of products and follow economic laws.The third part is the comment on " Practice Group"’s critical social theory. It is believedin this paper that " Practice Group" has enriched and developed social critical theory ofWestern neo-Marxist, made a new interpretation on the concept of Marxist practice andexplored the road to autonomous socialism. However, it also has limitations. On the one hand,Its humanitarian theory of socialism has a strong humanitarian utopian color and anarchismfeatured by denying government functions. On the other hand, Its theorists perform one-sidedthinking on issues of academic research and social practice. Therefore, here are theenlightenment given by " Practice Group". first of all, the construction of autonomoussocialism must be based on national conditions and characteristics of the times. Secondly, thepursuit of democracy and freedom must fully take the stage of social development intoaccount. Finally, exploration must be unified dialecticaly with pragmatic attitude.