Theory of Future Society

The Marxist exposition of the way towards a future association of free men.

The pursuit of an ideal future society free from oppression and exploitation has been the aspiration of working people and people with lofty ideas since ancient times. In the early 18th and 19th centuries, the utopian socialists Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen, while profoundly criticizing the grievances of capitalism, put forth all kinds of visions for the future society. Saint-Simon’s idea of replacing the anarchy of production with planned production and that everyone must work, Fourier’s and Owen’s programme of abolishing the old system of division of labor and the antithesis between town and country, and the claim of combining education with productive labor, etc., had many reasonable elements. Engels pointed out, “Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen—three men who, in spite of all their fantastic notions and all their utopianism, have their place among the most eminent thinkers of all times, and whose genius anticipated innumerable things, the correctness of which is now being scientifically proved by us.” Marx and Engels inherited the excellent intellectual achievements of their predecessors and, on the basis of historical materialism and the theory of surplus-value, turned socialism from a utopia into a science and have put forth a vision for the future society and the way toward it. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx Engels pointed out, “In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class antagonisms, we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.” In Capital, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Critique of the Gotha Programme, Anti-Dühring and other works, they made many incisive expositions. Regarding the future society, Marx and Engels did not put forth any once-and-for-all ready-made program, but drew definite conclusions from historical facts and development processes. Later, Lenin enriched the theory about the future society under new historical conditions, such as calling the first phase of communist society socialist society and the higher phase of communist society communist society; pointing out that one of the paths to the future society is to realize the organic combination of education and productive labor, and that an ideal future society cannot be conceived without the combination of education with the productive labor of the younger generation, etc. The Communist Party of China has further enriched the theory of scientific socialism in the practice of socialist construction in China.

The main content of the Marxist theory of the future society includes: First, to realize the communal ownership of the means of production on the basis of the proletarian revolution smashing the old state machinery and abolishing private property. The workers will become the masters of the means of production and the masters of society. Second, on the basis of the social property in the means of production, the members of society will engage in social labor according to a common plan. Production will be regulated by the whole society, no longer through the law of value and the market mechanism. With the large-scale development of socialized production and science and technology, industry and agriculture, town and country will merge into one, and individuals will realize full development regardless of local and occupational restrictions. The old social division of labor and the three major distinctions will be completely eliminated, the classes will be ultimately abolished, and the state will wither away of its own accord. The government and administration of persons will be completely replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. Third, the material wealth of the society will be enormously abundant, the spiritual realm of the people will be greatly improved, and the society will implement the rule “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. Labor will not only be a means of life but life’s prime want. Capital called such a future society “association of free men”, which is fundamentally different from the old capitalist society, “a higher form of society, a society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle”.

Based on the development of the material productive forces of mankind and the world existence of capitalism, and conditioned by the world victory of the communist revolution, the Marxist theory of the future society has scientifically revealed the direction of the progress of human society, and is a programme of struggle, far-reaching ideal and lofty pursuit of proletarian parties.