Suchergebnisse

There is a transitional phase between capitalism & socialism, during which the mode of ownership of the principal means of production is formally the whole society but the mode of real appropriation remains by limited collective bodies of workers, according to C. Bettleheim (LA TRANSITION VERS L'ECONOMIE SOCIALISTE, The Transition to Socialist Economy, 1968). In transitional soc formations, the units of production are enterprises, where state appointed directors--not workers--effectively possess (but do not own) the means of production & dispose of the products. Planning, which is the principal instrument for the soc direction of the economy, signifies the domination of the pol'al level over the econ level in transitional formations. At the level of labor relations, the enterprise retains several features of the capitalist mode of production, including (1) the persistence of wage labor; (2) the authority of the director; (3) the internal hierarchical org; (4) the continuing division between mental & manual labor. In addition to the enterprise, other instit'al sources that permit the reproduction of capitalist SR in a transitional society are (a) the existing capitalist world system; & (b) the state apparatus. If the state apparatus is truly & concretely dominated by the workers, then state ownership becomes the legal form for workers' soc ownership. But if the apparatus is dominated by a body of officials & admin'ors, it becomes the vehicle for the formation of a new SC of effective owners of the means of production--the state bourgeoisie. A transitional society with state ownership of enterprises connected by commodity relations & operated by wage-labor for the purpose of reproducing & increasing value, not satisfying human needs, has degenerated into state capitalism. The transitional society is a distinct historical stage with its own particular relations that can merge into socialism, on the road to communism, only if specific tasks are fulfilled. A. Karmen.