Social System

Also known as “social order”. A relatively stable system of social norms with compulsory regulatory effect on human social activity formed under certain historical conditions and in a certain society. Social system has two major levels of content: overall social system, such as the five social systems or social formations that emerged in human society: primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and socialist system; and concrete social system, i.e., the system in different spheres of a certain society, such as economic system, political system and cultural system. Social system is the general term for the economic, political and cultural systems of society. The socio-economic system is the foundation of the social system, of which the main one is the form of the property in the means of production. The socio-economic system is the relations of production that occupy the main position at a certain stage of the development of the human society, and determines the essence and direction of the development of social life. The economic system of a certain society constitutes the economic foundation of that society, and determines the political system of society and people’s social consciousness. The political system of society refers to the nature, organs and institutions of the state power. The political, cultural and other systems of society are determined by and serve the economic foundation from which they arise. Engels said that we make our history ourselves, but, in the first place, under very definite assumptions and conditions. Among these the economic ones are ultimately decisive. But the political ones, etc., and indeed even the traditions which haunt human minds also play a part, although not the decisive one. all political struggles are class struggles, and all class struggles for emancipation, despite their necessarily political form—for every class struggle is a political struggle—turn ultimately on the question of economic emancipation. Therefore, here at least, the State—the political order—is the subordination, and civil society—the realm of economic relations—the decisive element.

The formation of a social system is the unity of historical determinacy and subjective choice. On the one hand, the formation of a social system is, in the last instance, the result of the development of productive forces and is conditioned by the productive forces and the mode of production. Under certain conditions of the development of productive forces of men, there are certain forms of exchange and consumption. At a certain stage of the development of production, exchange and consumption, there is a corresponding social system, a corresponding family, hierarchical or class organization. Therefore, the social system is fundamentally formed in a certain historical state of society, is affected by conditions such as class conditions, thoughts and ideas and historical traditions, and has a historical determinacy. On the other hand, the emergence of a social system also embodies man’s conscious choice. The objective laws of history assert themselves through the conscious activity of men. Under established premises, man’s subjective efforts, which may seem accidental, also widely influence the image of the social system and its concrete forms of development. “Acceleration and delay are very dependent upon such ‘accidents,’ which included the ‘accident’ of the character of those who at first stand at the head of the movement.” That is to say, in the emergence of a social system, given the decisive part played by the economic factors, the productive forces, other factors, such as classes, political parties, the State, ideologies, etc., also play an important part. All social systems are products of history.

The fundamental contradictions of society are the fundamental driving force of the historical progress of society, and also the fundamental cause for the evolution of social systems. The means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in feudal society. At a certain stage of development of these means of production and exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organization of agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They had to be burst asunder. Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted in it, and the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class. The final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought in changes in the modes of production and exchange. The growing perception that existing social institutions are unreasonable and unjust, that reason has become unreason, and right wrong, is only proof that in the modes of production and exchange changes have silently taken place with which the social order, adapted to earlier economic conditions, is no longer in keeping. From this it also follows that the means of getting rid of the incongruities that have been brought to light must also be present, in a more or less developed condition, within the changed modes of production themselves. These means are not to be invented by deduction from fundamental principles, but are to be discovered in the stubborn facts of the existing system of production. The movement of the fundamental contradictions of society pushes forward the supersession of social systems, and with the development of the productive forces and the revolutions in the relations of production, old social systems will always be replaced by new social systems. This is the dialectics of the history of society. In class society, fundamental revolutions in the social system can only be achieved through a social revolution. In the revolutions in the economic foundation and the superstructure of society, new social systems arise one after another and replace the old ones to establish the various systems of the new society. In a society where the fundamental contradictions of society are antagonistic, social revolutions and the supersession of the social system are bound to manifest themselves as class struggle.

In socialist society, socialist public property in the means of production has been realized, exploitation has been abolished, a new type of relations of mutual assistance and co-operation among the workers has been established, and the rule “from each according to his ability, to each according to his contribution” has been implemented, the state system of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist ideology guided by Marxism are implemented. The fundamental contradictions of society are still the contradictions between the relations of production and the productive forces and between the superstructure and the economic foundation, but the nature of the fundamental contradictions is non-antagonistic. Through reform, society is being pushed forward, and new economic, political, cultural and other kinds of social systems and social institutions are constantly being formed. The social systems of socialism with Chinese characteristics and those social systems under conditions of the existence of classes are different in nature. The social system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is a product of the combination of the fundamental principles of scientific socialism and China’s concrete national conditions. It embodies both the essential characteristics of socialism and conforms to the actual national conditions of China. It embodies the requirements of advanced productive forces and advanced culture, and embodies the fundamental interests of the broad masses of people. It is a completely new social system in human history.