ABSTRACT
The socialist revolution anticipated by Marx was to be engineered by a morally superior minority vanguard party in the name of the proletariat. The proletariat, pursuing their own material interests as a class, would be driven to overthrow the system that required their exploitation. In China, to obtain the investment capital required for rapid construction of an industrial base, the party felt compelled to impose stringent limits on the growth of consumption. Commitment to development of the more realistic model of a society of associated producers would require certain shifts in thinking about communication, cooperation, and conflict both in actually existing socialist society and in the as yet unrealized socialist society of the future. The espoused goal of separating party ideological, government administrative, and economic managerial functions has thus far failed to challenge the party’s authority over government and economic policy and overall planning.
