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The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is a systematic economic discipline, which theoretically summarises the socialist economic system and the path of economic development with Chinese characteristics. It is a systematic economic theory of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context. The theoretical system construction for the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is currently a major task.

From the perspective of disciplinary cognition, the theoretical system of the discipline of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics includes the disciplinary attributes and connotations, theoretical basis, the origin of thoughts, major principles, logical starting point, main logic and problem-based study of major theoretical and practical issues.

Developing the discipline and building the theoretical system of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, several major principles should be adhered to, including building the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics on the basis of historical materialism; building the theoretical paradigm of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics around the analysis of production relations; adhering to the people-centred principle; taking common prosperity as the main logic of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics; studying the major theoretical and practical issues of building the socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era based on problems; and reflecting the innovative development of the discipline in the textbook, The Socialist Political Economy with Chinese Characteristics.

Disciplinary cognition involves the connotations, attributes, mission and development path of the discipline, which is related to how to construct the discipline system and is a significant part of the disciplinary construction.

Xi Jinping’s speech on the theme of “Continuously Exploring the New Zeitgeist of Marxist Political Economy in China,” dated back to November 2015, has illuminated the historical background, social roots, practical basis, basic characteristics, Zeitgeist, ideological realm and other issues relative to the development of “Systematic Economic Theory” with Chinese characteristics (hereinafter referred to as SETCC). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Exploring the SETCC marks a fundamental postulation for the development of contemporary Chinese Marxist political economy, and an important indicator of the Chinese wisdom thereof.

Unswervingly adhering to the new development concept as the leading factor, General Secretary Xi Jinping’s elucidation of the theoretical propositions and practical topics of building a modern economic system has, starting from the five aspects of development mainline, strategic support, fundamental approach, necessary road and institutional guarantee, and their interrelationships, unfolded new connotations and opened up a new realm of Xi’s New Economic Zeitgeist with new explorations on the structure and system of SETCC.

This paper first explains the development of Xi Jinping’s economic thoughts and reveals its systematization characteristics.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that to uphold and develop socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics, the authors should be guided by Marxist political economics.

It is an essential methodological principle for building a theoretical system of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics as a “systematic economic theory”.

To implement this principle, the authors need to understand the rich connotation of Marxist political economics and its relationship with socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics fully and correctly and unswervingly uphold and inherit, creatively transform and innovatively develop the theoretical achievements of Marxist economics, especially capital.

It is also an essential and necessary way to build a theoretical system of socialist political economics with Chinese characteristics.

The purpose of this paper is to promote the theoretical innovation of socialist economics with Chinese characteristics in these areas.

We must “excavate new materials, discover new problems, propose new ideas, and construct new theories from the practice of China’s reform and development.”

Giving full play to the government’s role in realizing optimal allocation of resources required for the public economy to better exert its control, influence and guidance, and at least assume the following three responsibilities. The first is to iron out the economic cycle. The second is to lead the industry to upgrade. The third is to ensure national economic security.

Some deep-rooted issues still need to be further studied in order to establish the scientific and practical nature of the socialist economics with Chinese characteristics. For instance, why is the theory of a socialist economy with Chinese characteristics summarized from the development practice in China a scientific theory?

The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics reflects the characteristics of ushering into a new era, and the research object thereof shifts to productive forces. Emancipating and developing productive forces and achieving common prosperity become the main theme. Wealth supersedes value as the fundamental category of economic analysis.

The theoretical system of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics cannot proceed from transcendental theories but is problem-oriented. Leading problems involve development stages and research-level problems.

The economic operation analysis is subject to the goal of optimal allocation of resources with micro-level analysis focused on efficiency and macro-level analysis focused on economic growth and macroeconomic stability also known as economic security. The economic development analysis explores the laws of development and related development concepts in compliance with laws of productive forces. The new development concepts i.e. the innovative coordinated green open and shared development drive the innovation of development theory in political economy.

Accordingly, the political economy cannot study the system only, but also needs to study the problems of economic operation and economic development. Therefore, the theoretical system of the political economy tends to encompass three major parts, namely economic system, economic operation and economic development (including foreign economy). The basic economic system analysis needs to understand the relationship between public ownership and non-public ownership, between distribution according to work and factor payments, and between socialism and market economy from the perspective of coexistence theory, thus transforming institutional advantage into governance advantage.

The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is the scientific fruit of Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics for a new era. People-centred philosophy is the core values of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's governance of China with Xi Jinping as the core and has become the core values of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. According to Xi Jinping thought on socialist economy with Chinese characteristics, it represents the interests of all people and determines the disciplinary attribute of the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, that is, people-centred economics. Xi Jinping has defined the essence of the socialism as eliminating poverty, improving people's livelihood and gradually realising common prosperity. That determines the main line of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to liberate, develop and protect the productive forces and achieve common prosperity. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned statements.

Xi Jinping's scientific judgement on the new stage of development and the principal contradiction facing Chinese society has put forward the requirement of problem orientation for the study of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics, involving the main contradiction facing Chinese society, high-quality development and modernisation. China's socialist basic economic system consists of a socialist market economy in which public ownership plays the leading role alongside other forms of ownership and distribution according to work is the mainstay, while other forms of distribution coexist alongside it. And this socialist basic economic system, marked out from three dimensions—production, distribution and exchange analysis, is the key of analysis of systems in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The economic operation analysis in political economy mainly involves resource allocation and the government's macroeconomic regulation and control.

The new thought and new practices about the role of the market and the government in the new era have opened up a new realm for the economic operation analysis in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development philosophy and new development paradigm define the content of the economic development theory in the socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. The new development paradigm reflects the dual circulation theory of social reproduction.

The socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics is to study laws of economics in various aspects from economic system, economic operation, economic development to foreign economy and provide the basic principles of socialist political economy with Chinese characteristics. Its mainstream economic position will be consolidated continuously.

The socialist construction with Chinese characteristics must be based on history and reality. According to the requirements of liberation and development of productivity, efforts must be made to reform and improve the production relations, as well as continually consolidate the socialist system with Chinese characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to prove the necessity and superiority of a socialist system through China’s modernization achievements.

Marxist political economics is a critical legacy from classical economics. Its core question is also social production and distribution, which is epitomized in the labor theory of value and the theory of surplus value.

Regarding the significant principles that must be followed, these speeches summarized the logical system and prominent features of the socialist political system in the new normal from several significant and interrelated aspects such as basic methods, core propositions, main tasks and fundamental goals.

The socialist system with Chinese characteristics will gradually appear through further research and prove its superiority. How can a socialist system with Chinese characteristics innovate and develop? Does the system have a future? Is there any historical necessity for the socialist system to replace the capitalist system in human history? These are the questions that need urgent answers and in-depth exploration.

Analyses and clarifies the concept of federalism outside such limited paradigmatic boundaries and includes the relevant social and economic variables. Applies a holistic and interdisciplinary methodology in the framework of the processes of general culture evolution to interrelate the social, the political and the economic. Compares the West European experiences and the US prototype, to that of the current movement towards an evolving Russian federation. Analyses the apparent positive and centripetal movement towards West European federalism, in the context of the European Union, juxtoposed to the centrifrugal forces evident in the collapse of the USSR. Analyses the current movement towards a Russian federation.

Purpose − The principal aim of this chapter is to present a comprehensive and critical review of Murray Kemp's contributions to the discipline of international trade and welfare economics.

Methodology/Approach − This chapter employs the critical literature review approach, including archival analysis and face-to-face interviews.

Findings − It is shown that Kemp has been a key player in the modernization of trade theory. In particular, he has extended the theorems of gains from trade in many different directions and under the most general conditions.

Practical implications − In surveying Kemp's research contributions this chapter provides a useful overview of the development of the normative theory of trade. It also examines a number of methodological issues that may prove to be useful to economic theorists.