The ideology of socialism is Marxism, etc., so what is the ideology of Western capitalism? Any specific theories?

Socialism and capitalism are the two most important contemporary values ??and the two most basic social systems.

The three major ideological movements of the 14th to 16th centuries, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment of the 18th century, gave birth to the ideology of the emerging bourgeoisie in Western countries. In the same historical period, in 1516, the outstanding British humanist Thomas More wrote the book "Utopia". With his vivid literary style, he exposed the evils of capitalism in its early stages of development and described an ideal society without exploitation and oppression. This was the beginning of people's criticism of capitalism and the pursuit of a better society. In the history of human thought, this is regarded as the beginning of utopian socialism.

Subsequently, capitalist values ??were perfected in bourgeois revolutions one after another. The Declaration of Human Rights, which was born during the French Bourgeois Revolution at the end of the 18th century, is the most typical representative. It relatively completely expresses the core of capitalist values: people are born free and equal in rights; the sovereignty of the country lies with the people, private property is sacred and inviolable, etc. This new idea, which was compatible with the development level of social productive forces at that time, represented the trend of social progress and entered the historical stage of the development of human thought in the baptism of blood and fire. Socialist values ??also developed at the same time. Following the emergence of the three major utopian socialisms, Marx and Engels jointly founded the scientific socialist theory in the 1840s by analyzing the contradiction between the essence of the capitalist system and human values ????and published the "The Communist Party of China". declaration". The establishment of historical materialism and the discovery of the theory of surplus value revealed that private ownership is the root of all systems of exploitation. Therefore, "Communists can summarize their theory in one sentence: the elimination of private ownership" [1]. Socialism has since got rid of utopias, walked out of the utopian wasteland, and become convincing science. The birth of scientific socialist theory effectively guided and promoted the proletarian liberation movement. When mankind entered the 20th century, socialist values ??finally obtained their own institutional carrier—the socialist state.

The history of the occurrence and development of the two values ??and the two social systems clearly shows: First, capitalism and socialism are both social and historical products of human progress. They emerged almost at the same time, and at the same time they were continuously enriched and developed in social practice. Second, the fundamental opposition between socialism and capitalism is concentrated in the relations of production: one wants to maintain private ownership, and the other wants to eliminate private ownership. Third, socialism is the sublation of capitalism. It opposes exploitation, but inherits all the beautiful pursuits of human values: freedom, democracy, human rights, and equality. Fourth, contemporary society can find the meaning of existence from the contradictory movements between capitalism and socialism: in capitalist countries, the bourgeoisie occupies the dominant position in society, while in socialist countries, the working class is the main body of the vast labor force. The masses are the masters of the country and society. Fifth, social existence determines social consciousness, and the economic base determines the superstructure. Under the conditions of relatively developed social productive forces, capitalism shows the rationality of its existence; under the conditions of relatively underdeveloped social productive forces, socialism also shows the necessity of its existence and its ideal value. With the development of social productive forces, socialism has increasingly shown its comparative advantages, and modern capitalism has to learn from and absorb the nutrients of socialism in the process of development. Socialism and capitalism always exist in comparison with each other and develop in the unity of opposites. Advanced values ????and social systems will always replace backward values ????and social systems. This is an objective law of the historical development of human society.

Therefore, socialism and capitalism will exist in human society for a long historical period. There is both confrontation and inheritance between them. In the contemporary world, although the contradictory movements between socialism and capitalism are complicated, their existence dominates reality. Their existence is all realistic and has its reasonable factors.

Regardless of whether it is a capitalist country or a socialist country, the development level of productive forces is far from reaching the highly developed level that people expect. The gap between rich and poor is a common problem faced by all countries at present. Therefore, it is still impossible for socialism to replace capitalism and completely defeat capitalism to achieve a dominant position in reality.

II

Marxism reveals the general laws of the development of human society and makes scientific divisions into the forms of human society.

——From the perspective of social system, there are five forms, namely "Asiatic, ancient, feudal and modern bourgeois modes of production" [2], as well as the future *** communist mode of production. Later, Stalin summarized the thoughts of Marx and Engels into five social and economic forms, namely primitive communal system, slavery, feudal ownership, capitalism and socialism.

——From the perspective of social relations, there are three forms. Human dependence (which was completely natural at first) is the original social form. In this form, human productivity develops only within a narrow range and in isolated locations. Human independence, based on dependence on things, is the second largest form. In this form, universal social material exchanges, comprehensive relationships, multi-faceted needs, and comprehensive capability systems are formed. Free individuality based on the comprehensive development of individuals and their unique social production capabilities becoming their social wealth is the third stage. The second stage creates conditions for the third stage [3].

These two divisions are essentially the same. The correspondence between them is: primitive society, slave society, and feudal society correspond to "human dependence"; capitalist society corresponds to "human independence based on dependence on things"; communism Society corresponds to "free individuality based on the comprehensive development of individuals and their unique social productive capabilities becoming their social wealth."

A problem is discovered from this: the primary stage of socialism we are in today, including the social systems of other socialist countries in the world, does not have a corresponding position in the classic Marxist theory. So, which set of correspondences should they belong to? This is worthy of our in-depth thinking.

We know that Marx and Engels founded the scientific socialist theory in the middle of the 19th century. Before that, socialism, as a value and a social trend of thought, was a beautiful ideal for mankind to criticize capitalism and dream of replacing capitalism. After that, the proletariat of various countries in the world carried out various struggles under the guidance of Marxist theory. But until their deaths, no real social system with the proletariat as the ruling class had been formed. Capitalism, with its then advanced social system, prepared relatively developed productive forces and abundant material conditions for communism. In this way, the task of realizing people's "free individuality" has historically fallen on the shoulders of the capitalist system.

However, with the progress of human society, a group of backward countries represented by the Soviet Union and China have gradually embarked on the road of socialism without going through the capitalist system. This is something that the founders of Marxism did not expect when they first divided social forms.

Obviously, the division of the three social forms by the founder of Marxism is highly abstract, summarizes the essence, and reflects general laws. The division of the five social forms is specific and is a historical reflection and theoretical inference of the actual social system.

Looking at the current development status of human society as a whole, all countries have surpassed the stage of "human dependence" and are far from the stage of "human comprehensive development and free individuality". It belongs to the stage of "human independence based on dependence on things". This stage eliminated the primitive, slave, and feudal dependence of people on people, and workers became independent. But this independence must be premised on the dependence of things due to the lack of abundance of things. People's social rights are basically expressed in the form of possession.

Human society is currently in the stage of "human independence based on dependence on things", and China is no exception. If we follow the division of social states by the founder of Marxism, the current development state of Chinese society should correspond to capitalist society. But this is not true.

The fact is that although the capitalist mode of production has appeared in Chinese history, it has not truly formed a capitalist system. "After 1840, due to the invasion of Western powers, China gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The Chinese people were double oppressed by imperialism and feudalism. The national crisis and social crisis were unprecedentedly profound. Starting from the Opium War and through the Taiping Rebellion, , the Reform Movement of 1898, and the Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese people fought indomitably, and countless people with lofty ideals worked hard to explore the path of saving the country and the people. Each of these struggles and explorations promoted China's progress under certain historical conditions, but time and time again. It failed. The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen overthrew the autocratic monarchy that had ruled China for thousands of years. It was of great significance to China's social progress, but it failed to change the nature of China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society and the tragic fate of the people. , self-improvement movements and reformism that do not touch the foundation of feudalism, old-style peasant wars, democratic revolutions led by bourgeois revolutionaries, and other plans that copy Western capitalism cannot fulfill the national mission of saving the nation and the history of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism. Mission. China is looking forward to new social forces looking for advanced theories to create a path to save the country and the people." [4]

The development and evolution of Chinese society has indeed taken a special form. After the decline of feudal society, China did not enter a capitalist society in accordance with the general laws of human social development. Instead, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the proletariat and the broad masses of working people seized state power and began a new democratic society and The primary stage of socialism. Therefore, the primary stage of socialism in our country should be a special form of the evolution of specific social systems in the second major form of human social development under China's special national conditions. It is essentially different from classic capitalism, and has every reason to assume part of the task of creating highly developed productive forces and extremely rich material wealth as human society moves toward the third stage of communism.

We can think that the social system corresponding to the stage of "human independence based on dependence on things" is not just a capitalist system, but there should be a variety of social systems to choose from. But they all have one thing in common, that is, the fundamental task is to develop productivity. In other words, from feudal society to communist society, a social form with highly developed productive forces must pass through. Marx generally called it capitalist society, but this can no longer scientifically summarize today's reality. Judging from contemporary social practice, it can be a capitalist society, or it can be socialism in the primary stage or underdeveloped socialism. This choice develops and changes according to the conditions of different countries and different ethnic groups. It is a form of individuality that contains independence, and is an organic combination of universal truth and objective reality.