ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a criticism of the devolution of theory within Marxism. It aims to trace the emergence of reductionist epistemologies within Marxism, and the effect of these on the development of socialist strategies of transition. The chapter examines the work of Karl Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Zedong, and assesses how far the present Chinese leadership has broken with the theoretical traditions which have evolved. Marx defended a distinction between the real object and the object of knowledge, and in so doing broke with empiricist epistemologies. Mao's critique of Stalin stressed his economism and humanism and identified the basis of his deviation as the theory of the productive forces. Central to Mao's position on the relations of production was the notion of exploitation and struggle in the determination of 'labour experience'. Post-Mao China is not free from those tendencies which engendered both Stalinism and Maoism.
