The term "Theory of Productive Forces" should not be confused with the Marxist analysis of productive forces

Productive forces

Productive forces, "productive powers" or "forces of production" [in German, Produktivkräfte] is a central idea in Marxism and historical materialism....

 that is a cornerstone of Marxist theory.

The Theory of Productive Forces (sometimes referred to as productive force determinism) is a widely-used concept in communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

 and Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 placing primary emphasis on technical advances and strong productive forces in a nominally socialist economy before real communism, or even real socialism, can have a hope of being achieved.

The most influential philosophical defence of this idea has been promulgated by Gerald Cohen

Gerald Cohen

Gerald Allan "Jerry" Cohen was a Marxist political philosopher, formerly Visiting Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College, London and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, Oxford...

 in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence. According to this view, technical change

Technical change

A technical change is a term used in economics to describe a change in the amount of output produced from the same amount of inputs. A technical change is not necessarily technological as it might be organizational, or due to a change in a constraint such as regulation, input prices, or quantities...

 can beget social change

Social change

Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...

; in other words, changes in the means (and intensity) of production causes changes in the relations of production

Relations of production

Relations of production is a concept frequently used by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their theory of historical materialism, and in Das Kapital...

, i.e., in people's ideology and culture, their interactions with one another, and their social relationship to the wider world.

In this view, actual socialism or communism, being based on the "redistribution of wealth" to the most oppressed sectors of society, cannot come to pass until that society's wealth is built up enough to satisfy whole populations. Using this theory as a basis for their practical programmes meant that communist theoreticians and leaders, while paying lip service

Lip Service

Lip service is an idiom meaning 'giving approval or support insincerely' .Lip service may also refer to:- Television :* Lip Service , a 2010 dramatic series broadcast on BBC Three...

 to the primacy of ideological change in individuals to sustain a communist society, actually put productive forces first, and ideological change second.

The philosophical perspective behind the modernizing zeal of, in particular, the Russian and Chinese communists seeking to industrialize their countries is perhaps captured best by this thought in The German Ideology

The German Ideology

The German Ideology is a book written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels around April or early May 1846. Marx and Engels did not find a publisher. However, the work was later retrieved and published for the first time in 1932 by David Riazanov through the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow...

by Marx and Engels.

External links

• http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm#b1
• http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj102/harman.htm
  
• http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/poverty-philosophy/ch02.htm