The unfolding of the third scientific and technological revolution became the strongest driving factor; the unprecedented development of state monopoly capitalism, which used many forms of intervention in economic life; the Yalta system established after World War II, with a relatively peaceful international environment; the adjustment of national internal and external policies, the expansion of domestic and international trade; the active popularity of the general public in capitalist countries labor; the First Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution have led to a tremendous development of the productive forces in the capitalist countries.
2. The main manifestations of the new changes in the capitalist economic methods in the post-war period
(1) The vigorous intervention of the state in the economy, which mainly includes the implementation of nationalization, the formulation of economic plans, the use of taxation (by suppressing excessive incomes and the continuous inheritance of incomes in order to attenuate the serious injustice of the distribution of income in the country, so that the class contradictions and the social contradictions under the rule of capitalism are also eased to a certain extent), etc. Fiscal policy regulates social production, etc. The use of state power to regulate the economy avoids to some extent the blindness of private capital production and ensures the social nature of production.
(2) The implementation of "people's capitalism" and "operator's revolution", the decentralization of stocks (employee shareholding) and the specialization of operators after World War II, and the emergence of the tendency of socialization of capital were the major adjustments of the enterprise's management strategy.
(3) the establishment of a social welfare system: ① "welfare state" in essence: the state uses social security policies and social service spending to protect the minimum income of individuals and families, to ensure their economic security, and to ensure that all citizens can enjoy better social services. Social welfare is financed by individual contributions, corporate contributions, and state subsidies. The welfare system became a form of redistribution of national income, reflecting the trend of socialization in the field of distribution. (iii) Evaluation: The emergence of the welfare state has provided basic protection for the lives of the low-income class, alleviated social conflicts, and expanded social consumption. However, the welfare policies of developed countries have also led to the expansion of fiscal expenditures in some countries, resulting in fiscal deficits and lowering people's motivation to work. ④Development: In the 1960s and 1970s, the development of the "welfare state" became more and more complete; after the economic crisis in 1973, the development of the "welfare state" suffered a setback in some countries, but it still continued to develop; after the 1980s, the United States, the United Kingdom and France reduced the government's public welfare programs to varying degrees. After the 1980s, the United States, Britain, France, and other countries reduced government spending to varying degrees to reduce the size of the "welfare state".
(4) The tertiary sector has flourished, improving economic competitiveness, expanding the field of economic activities, increasing employment, expanding the market and improving the allocation of resources. The high-tech industrial sector has developed rapidly and become an important pillar of the national economy, representing the vigorous development of the third industrial revolution of high-tech.
(5) The new trend of "new economy" first appeared in the United States. The development of the "new economy" has driven the U.S. economy for a decade of sustained growth.
3. Essential features: These new changes are mainly manifested in the economic system, the way of economic operation, industrial structure and so on. The new changes that have emerged in contemporary capitalism are the result of capitalism's proactive search for self-regulation and adjustment, which has promoted and led the forward development of the world economy. The state has intervened in social and economic life on a large scale; or adjusted the relations of production and eased class conflicts; or combined state planning with market regulation or generally strengthened state monopoly capitalism.
4. Awareness of the new changes in contemporary capitalism
(1) Changes: ① Entering the stage of state monopoly capitalism. (The combination of market and government regulation) ② The emergence of the so-called "people's capitalism" (ordinary workers also own shares) ③ The emergence of a new trend of "revolution of the operator". （The emergence of the so-called "people's capitalism" (ordinary workers also owned stocks) ③ The emergence of a new trend of "revolution of operators" (the owners of enterprises withdrew from the front line of operation, and specialized managers and scientists were engaged in the operation of the enterprises) ④ The emergence of the welfare state (the establishment of a generalized and relatively complete social security system) was a successful practice of the state's intervention in the distribution of social wealth. ⑤ The tertiary industry flourished (the industrial structure changed as a result of scientific and technological progress and changes in the structure of demand) ⑥ The knowledge economy first emerged in the United States in the 1990s (the emergence in the United States of a new mode of economic growth based on the knowledge economy and led by information technology)
(2) Evaluation: ① The state's intervention in economic life has enhanced the ability of planning and regulation, but it cannot fundamentally overcome the capitalist defects of the market mechanism, it is impossible to eliminate the capitalist economic cycle crisis. Scientific and technological progress and government intervention can only lengthen the period of cyclical expansion and shorten the period of recession, and the degree of recession is relatively mild; ② The combination of cyclical and structural problems, and the combination of production and financial problems, further complicates the problem of recession. The development of capitalism is accompanied by various imbalances, disorders, turbulences and recessions in parallel.
(3) Recognition: first of all, we should look at the new changes in capitalism realistically. Contemporary developed capitalist countries in the productive forces, relations of production, superstructure of the various aspects of the past have undergone great changes, the fact that the post-war capitalist economy of the rapid development of the fact that the relations of production and the productive forces are not only antagonistic to each other, there is also mutually adaptable and can be coordinated, the capitalist relations of production to the current stage of the development of the productive forces still have a considerable ability to accommodate the development of the development potential and vitality of capitalist production. There is still potential for development and vitality. Secondly, we should analyze the new changes in contemporary capitalism dialectically, and see both the side of it that has undergone profound changes and the side that has not changed; there are some substantial things that have remained unchanged in the many developments and changes, and the least capitalism can do to adjust itself is to leave the capitalist system unchanged, and these adjustments can only temporarily alleviate rather than fundamentally solve the basic contradictions of capitalism, and capitalist society is facing new contradictory conflicts and conflicts of interest. In the 1970s, the phenomenon of "stagflation" in developed countries was a prominent reflection of this. At the same time, it should also be recognized that the policies of capitalist countries are wavering on whether to strengthen or reduce state intervention in the economy. Specifically: ① The essence of these new changes is the self-abandonment of capitalism, the self-improvement within capitalism, and the self-adjustment of capitalist production relations. ② These new changes do not solve its inherent contradictions and problems. ③ These new changes, on the one hand, enable it to develop itself better and increase its strength, and at the same time bring about factors that negate itself.④ These new changes are the result of capitalism's proactive quest for self-regulation and adjustment. The reason why capitalism has to take the initiative to change is not only the need to maximize profits, but also some improvement measures it has to take in the process of competing with the socialist system, including borrowing some good experiences from socialism
Difficult Analysis
I. The Development of State-Monopoly Capitalism after the Second World War
State-monopoly capitalism arose at the end of the 19th century capitalism during the transition period from capitalism to imperialism, it is a capitalism that combines private monopoly organizations with bourgeois state power. The theoretical source is Keynesianism, which aims to avoid the blindness of capitalist production.In the 1930s, under the influence of the great economic crisis, countries, in order to put an end to the crisis as soon as possible, strengthened the macro-management of the economy in different degrees and forms, and state monopoly capitalism arose.The Roosevelt New Deal in the 1930s created a new mode of development of the state intervention in the economy, which was the Keynesianism's The first successful application of Keynesianism. After World War II, up to countries generally give up laissez-faire economic policy, the use of state power to vigorously intervene in the economy, state monopoly capitalism has a new development, the main reason is: ① the development of productive forces so that the private monopoly capitalism inevitably to state monopoly capitalism. ② The special role of war promoted the formation of state monopoly capitalism. ③ The economic crisis called for state monopoly capitalism to play the role of intervention and regulation. ④ The emergence of high-tech industries in the post-war period requires the state to invest heavily and manage them effectively.
The main contents of the development of state monopoly capitalism in the post-war period were expressed in the following four aspects: (1) the development of state-owned enterprises; (2) the proportion of the state's financial income and expenditure in the national economy increased year by year; (3) the nationalization of the central bank and the strengthening of the central bank's intervention in the country's finances and its role in regulating them; and (4) the strengthening of the state's management of the economy and its role in regulating the society.
State monopoly capitalism is a new form of capitalist monopoly, which is not essentially different from private monopoly. However, it had certain positive aspects at that time: firstly, it broke through the limitations of private monopoly and socialized the process of production, technological transformation and reproduction of labour, thus accommodating the development of the productive forces to a greater extent. Secondly, it overcomes to a certain extent the limitations of private monopoly capital and its contradiction with the huge investment in modernization, and eases to a certain extent the contradiction between production and consumption, thus easing the economic crisis for a certain period of time and promoting the development of production.
But state monopoly capitalism cannot eliminate the basic contradictions of capitalism, and in the process of development will make the contradictions further aggravated, and ultimately deepen the stagnation of the capitalist economy. after the 1980s, the Reagan administration in the United States began to adopt the policy of reducing the state's intervention in the economy.
The "visible hand" and the "invisible hand" in the market economy
Today's countries around the world are generally characterized by a mixed economy, that is, on the one hand, they rely on the market mechanism as the main form of economic activity, and on the other hand, the government through planning, regulation, fiscal and monetary policies, and the government's role in the economy. Governments promote macroeconomic growth and stability through planning, regulation, fiscal and monetary policies, etc., to regulate the inadequacy of the market, the evolutionary trajectory of all types of major markets is usually the result of the efforts of two hands **** together, one is the "invisible hand", the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, used this hand to summarize the role of the market mechanism; The other "visible hand", mainly refers to the government authorities on the market regulation and intervention, the representative figure Keynes. Faced with the rapid development of state monopoly capitalism, the ruling class and the ruling group want a new economics, to oppose laissez-faire, advocating state interventionism; Keynes adapted to this trend, he advocated active government intervention in the economy, highlighting the role of government deficit spending on the expansion of aggregate demand, that in the case of insufficient aggregate demand, that is, the economy is caught in a situation where the level of output is much lower than the level of potential output, if the government increases its purchases, aggregate demand will increase. aggregate demand will increase if the government increases its purchases. In the modern economy, both are important, and traces of both hands are everywhere. 1929 saw the onset of an economic crisis that affected capitalist countries around the world, and the United States suffered heavy losses. Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" created a mixed economic model in which both the visible hand (government) and the invisible hand (market)*** acted together in the economy. In this model, the law of the market, the "invisible hand" and government intervention, the "visible hand" combined, *** with the influence of the economy, the role of the market and the role of the government at the same time to play.
Learning method navigation
1. The problems of the capitalist economy should be based on the actual operation of the capitalist economy to find the causes.
2. "The new changes of post-war capitalism" is a summary of the post-war and even today's adjustment of the economic system of the major western capitalist countries. after the 1930s, capitalism broke through its own development dilemmas, and under the premise of keeping the fundamental system of capitalism unchanged, through the regulation of the economic operation mechanism, the economy gained rapid and significant progress. economy gained rapid and substantial development.
3. Adjustment and economic development in the three major fields of capitalist countries: (1) the establishment of a sound democratic system, the coordination of labor-management relations, and the easing of social contradictions; (2) the continuous adjustment of economic policies and the strengthening of macro-control of the economy in order to guarantee the high-speed development of the economy; (3) the continuous adjustment of contradictions between countries, and the realization of the economic cooperation in the international field.
4. One should apply the developmental viewpoint to the capitalist economic system, whose operating mechanism develops and changes with the development of objective conditions, and understand the new changes and characteristics of the capitalist economy.
5. The development of human society is characterized by unity and diversity, and efforts should be made to learn from and absorb the experience of other peoples and countries in developing their economies and to adapt to the trend of economic globalization