Does the Marxist theory of formations need updating?
The authors of this article have a high regard for the Marxist theory of socio - economic formations, which laid the basis for scientific study of the evolution of human civilisation and which predicts the transition from capitalism to a new and just social order. Not all the propositions of this theory, however, have met the test of time. The creation of a new socialist system began in 1917 in a single country with an insufficiently high level of development of capitalism, and without the support of the world proletariat. This deviation from the Marxist prognosis provided an excuse for criticising the theory of formations, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union began to be interpreted as proof that the socialist road was a dead - end. In the view of the authors, the changes that have occurred in the world situation during the century and a half since the publication of the formation theory make corrections to some of its positions essential, but this does not detract from the general significance of its analysis of the capitalist formation or from its prognosis concerning the general crisis of capitalism. Taking account of real practice and of the achievements of modern institutional and civilisational theory, the authors note the binary character of the formation theory, that for the most part corresponds to the realities of Western countries. They suggest that the “Asiatic mode of production” distinguished by Marx be viewed as an analogue of “Eastern feudalism”, and propose that the rise of the socialist formation in less developed countries be regarded as a natural phenomenon accompanying the passage of these countries through the stage of the industrial revolution. Under modern conditions it is appropriate to retain the well - established terms “capitalism” and “socialism”, but with refinements of a temporal and territorial variety - in other words, while examining different “models” of capitalism and socialism.