Basic Contradictions of Socialist Society

Mao Zedong's important theory put forward in 1957 in "On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions among the People".

Mao Zedong pointed out in his article: “In socialist society the basic contradictions are still those between the relations of production and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic base.” He said that socialist relations of production was already established and were suited to promote the growth of the productive forces, but these relations were still far from perfect, and this imperfection stood in contradiction to the growth of the productive forces.

The state system and laws of the people's democratic dictatorship and the socialist ideology guided by Marxism-Leninism, namely, the superstructure is in correspondence with the socialist economic base, that is, with socialist relations of production; however, the existence of bourgeois ideology, a certain bureaucratic style of work in our state organs and defects in some of the links in our state institutions are in contradiction with the socialist economic base.

In the future, we must continue to resolve all such contradictions in the light of our specific conditions. “Since socialist basic economic system, based on the public ownership of the means of production, can allow the productive forces to develop at a speed unattainable in the old society, and the basic socialist political system is conducive to the unification of our country, the unity of our people and the unity of our various nationalities, and offers a high degree of efficiency, thus Mao Zedong, concluded: the contradictions in socialist society are fundamentally different from those in the old societies.

For example, in the capitalist society contradictions find expression in acute antagonisms and conflicts, in sharp class struggles; they cannot be resolved by the capitalist system itself and can only be fundamentally resolved by overthrowing the political rule of the bourgeoisie through the socialist revolution and by the replacement of the private capitalist ownership with the socialist public ownership of the means of production. “The case is quite different with contradictions in socialist society.” “On the contrary, they are not antagonistic and can be ceaselessly resolved by the socialist system itself.”

That is to say, on the premise of upholding the basic socialist system, we can consciously adjust the parts of the relations of production that do not meet the requirements of the development of productive forces, and the parts of the superstructure that do not suit the economic base; such contradictions in our society don’t need to manifest themselves as violent class confrontations and social conflict, as seen in the capitalist society, or manifest themselves as a revolution in which one class overthrows another. That is to say, on the one hand, socialist relations of production and productive forces, and the superstructure and economic basis on the other are basically compatible with each other.

We must affirm that "the present social system of our country is far superior to that of the old days”, and we must bear in mind the historical truth that "only socialism can save China, therefore we should unswervingly uphold the basic system of socialism; but on the other hand, we should not forget that there are still contradictions between the relations of production and the productive forces, and between the superstructure and the economic base. We must see that "our socialist system has only just newly established; it is not yet fully developed and consolidated” and "is still far from perfect ", therefore, "time is needed for our socialist system to become established and consolidated”, and it needs "to go through the socialist system itself" so as to overcome its defects in some of its links and constantly "perfect" itself.

Mao Zedong's theory of basic contradictions in socialist society provided a solid theoretical and ideological basis in carrying out reforms within the socialist system.