The Laws of Development of Society

Essential intrinsic relations between human activities and between various phenomena of the social movement and the inevitable trend of development of the history of society.

For a long period of time, due to historical and class limitations, men failed to know the objective laws of development of society. This is the chief shortcoming of the old idealist conception of history. The history of society is made up of the activities of men who pursue conscious ends. The earlier historical theories at best examined only the ideological motives in the historical activities of man, without tracing back to the material origins behind the ideological motives. The history of society was considered to be determined by man’s subjective will or dominated by God, an accumulation of various accidental phenomena. The classical German philosopher Hegel described history as a process of motion and change, and tried to reveal the inner connection therein. However, he regarded the absolute Idea as the original existence and the true driving force of history, thus, he did not reveal the objective laws of development of history.

Marx distinguished the relations of production from all social relations, and by analyzing the relations of production, he applied the general scientific criterion of repeatability to the study of society, founded the basic concept of social formation, and revealed the objective laws of development of society. Lenin said: “Only the reduction of social relations to production relations and of the latter to the level of the productive forces provided a firm basis for the conception that the development of formation as of society is a process of natural history.”

Historical materialism has revealed the fundamental structure that constitute a certain social formation and the laws of its development. Productive forces and relations of production, economic foundation and superstructure constitute the fundamental structure of society. The contradictions between them are the fundamental contradictions of society. The movement of the fundamental contradictions of society pushes forward social development. The determining factor in the historical process is, in the last instance, the production and reproduction of actual life. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. When the relations of production turn into the fetters of the development of productive forces, then an era of social revolution begins and the changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure. The existence of classes is bound up with particular historical phases in the development of production, class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the dictatorship of the proletariat constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society.

Historical materialism has revealed the historical course of the evolution of various social formations and indicated the general trend of the history of human society. When Marx outlined his conception of history in his 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, he expressed the general trend of historical development as follows: “In broad outline, the Asiatic, ancient, feudal and modern bourgeois modes of production may be designated as epochs marking progress in the economic development of society.” He pointed out that “the bourgeois relations of production are the last antagonistic form of the social process of production”, “this social formation brings the prehistory of society to a close”. After the publication of Engels’ book The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, which explained the history of the early stages of development of human society, this thought on the laws of evolution of the history of society was developed and became the theory of five social formations. Deng Xiaoping summarized the laws of development of human society revealed by historical materialism as follows: Feudal society replaced slave society, capitalism supplanted feudalism, and, after a long time, socialism will necessarily supersede capitalism. This is an irreversible general trend of historical development.

The laws of development of society are as objective in nature as the laws of nature. Marx said: “My standpoint, from which the evolution of the economic formation of society is viewed as a process of natural history.” The laws of development of society have different characteristics, compared with the laws of nature. The laws of nature are manifested in the interaction of unconscious and blind forces. The laws of society are manifested through human activity, and human activity has conscious intentions and intended aims. This characteristic of social laws is important for the study of various epochs and concrete historical events, but it does not change the fact that the historical process is governed by intrinsic general laws and does not deny the objectivity of the laws of society. Men’s ends and acts conflict with each other, so the result of their action is not anticipated, which brings about a situation similar to that in nature. Historical events seem to be governed by chance, but chance is always governed by laws hidden inside.

Acknowledging the objective laws of social development and historical necessity does not deny the role of the individual in history. The resultant, which embodies the necessary trend of history, is made up by innumerable individual wills. Each individual contributes to the resultant. Lenin said: “The idea of historical necessity does not in the least undermine the role of the individual in history: All history is made up of the actions of individuals, who are undoubtedly active figures.” Acknowledging the objective laws of social development and historical necessity does not deny human freedom. Freedom is the knowledge of necessity and the reshaping of the world according to objective laws. Men cannot change or abolish the objective laws of society, but they can know the laws, follow and apply the objective laws in practice to change society, push forward the progress of history and be free.