BEIJING: China issued its first national action plan to build a "strong education nation" by 2035, which it said would help coordinate its education development, improve efficiencies in innovation and build a "strong country". The plan, issued by the Communist Party's central committee and the State C
That’s not what the state is in Marxist theory. Engels:
The State is chiefly the aspects of class society that enforce class distinctions, not government planners. Administration requires management and planning. Further, Engels:
Communism requires ever larger manufacturing, ergo it requires planning and administration. In the USSR, as an example, these were democratically run by the Soviets. Lenin’s critiques did not mean the USSR was not Socialist, administration never formed a class. Read Soviet Democracy and Is The Red Flag Flying? Political Economy of the USSR.
The USSR was not “state capitalist,” that’s an entirely different concept. The closest would be during the NEP, which was later pivoted from in favor of collective ownership after the NEP served its purpose.
No, AES isn’t perfect or free from struggle, but it is real, and you’re attempting to define Socialism as perfect, and Capitalism as anything with hierarchy, including a publicly owned, democratically controlled and planned economy, which is so far beyond useless for understanding economic phases that it adds massive confusion.
The state is supposed to wither away as the working class takes control of production. Engels and Marx argued that the state, under capitalism, is a tool for maintaining class divisions, and this should end in socialism.
Socialism requires large-scale planning, but the key difference is that it must be managed democratically by workers, not a central bureaucracy. Lenin criticized the Soviet bureaucracy because it hindered true worker control.
The USSR state managed the economy without giving workers control. Even after the NEP, the state still controlled production without real worker participation.
For Marx, socialism means the working class collectively controls the economy, which wasn’t realized in the Soviet system. While there were gains, they came from a centralized authority, not workers themselves.
Despite state planning, the Soviet system concentrated power in the hands of a few.
Again, Engels literally stated that administrators are necessary for large industry. There’s no difference between what Engels is describing here and the USSR’s model of Political Economy, driven by Soviet Democracy. The government controlling the economy via worker-led democratic soviets is fully in line with Socialism and Communism, which must be global. You’re making the same error as the Anarchists who wish the state abolished overnight.
Really, this is going nowhere because you are unfamiliar or deliberately ignoring the makeup of AES from a democratic perspective, and redefining Socialism as the impossible status of “perfectly represents Marx’s principles.” Marx himself would laugh.
Thank you for acknowledging this is going nowhere. As said multiple times, there are no perfection requirements, only an emphasis on aligning with Marxist principles. Beyond that, this has always been just forum posting, not a debate to win.
AES does put an emphasis on following Marxist principles, when you made an assertion that I countered with clear evidence like the historical texts on how Soviet Democracy functioned and how the economy was run, you ignore them. This makes me think you care more for arguing than learning.