The Concept of “New Quality Productive Forces” from an Innovation Perspective

Innovation plays a leading role in the formation and development of new quality productive forces, is a characteristic of new quality productive forces, and is also a basic requirement for allocating productive factors to generate new quality productive forces, as well as an important stipulation of the new development concept that new quality productive forces must conform to. Therefore, approaching the concept of “new quality productive forces” from the perspective of innovation helps to comprehensively grasp how this concept enriches and develops Marxist productive forces theory in the context of contemporary practice.

创新既在新质生产力的形成和发展中起主导作用，是新质生产力的特点，还是配置生产要素以催生新质生产力的基本要求，是新质生产力要符合的新发展理念的重要规定性。因此，从创新的视角切入“新质生产力”概念，有助于全面把握这一概念在当代实践背景下对马克思主义生产力理论的丰富和发展。

Highlighting the Subject Dimension of Advanced Productive Forces

凸显先进生产力的主体向度

The emphasis on the subject status of workers is a distinctive feature that distinguishes Marx’s concept of productive forces from bourgeois economics. Marx elucidated the essence and characteristics of productive forces through his critique of bourgeois economics’ theory of productive forces, revealing the important role of workers in the formation and development of productive forces. The concept of “new quality productive forces,” with its emphasis on innovative activities and innovative capabilities, further highlights the subject dimension of advanced productive forces.

重视劳动者的主体地位是马克思的生产力概念区别于资产阶级经济学的显著特征。马克思通过批判资产阶级经济学的生产力理论而阐明生产力的本质和特征，揭示出劳动者在生产力形成和发展中的重要作用。“新质生产力”概念对创新活动和创新能力的重视，进一步凸显了先进生产力的主体向度。

The critique of List’s economic theory was the starting point for the formation of Marx’s concept of “productive forces.” From the manuscripts that have survived, Marx directed his critique squarely at List’s vaunted theory of productive forces. Because List emphasized the distinction between wealth and the cause of wealth, focusing on productive forces as the cause of wealth, his theory appeared quite innovative on the surface and placed great importance on human beings and their capabilities. In response, Marx pointed out that List’s separation of wealth from the cause of wealth actually degraded human beings to the level of things. Under the conditions of private ownership, even if humans have the honor of being the cause of wealth, of being “productive forces,” they cannot escape the fate of being replaced by other forces such as machines and livestock. Moreover, List misunderstood modern productive forces and failed to recognize the truly human productive forces created by industry. List’s advocacy of the nationality represented by “national economics” and “national spirit” merely expressed the aspirations of the German bourgeoisie: to mitigate the struggle with the proletariat domestically and to compete with other bourgeoisies abroad. In Marx’s view, it was necessary to transcend the current historical stage of modern industry and, from the perspective of world history, understand the significance of modern industry for promoting human development. With the establishment of historical materialism, Marx further pointed out that “productive forces are the result of people’s practical capabilities,” [1]1 Marx and Engels, *The German Ideology* (1845-1846). being both the product of the activities of past eras and the mode of people’s common activity in a given social stage. He also emphasized: “Of all the instruments of production, the greatest productive power is the revolutionary class itself.” [2]2 Marx, *The Poverty of Philosophy* (1847).

对李斯特经济学说的批判是马克思“生产力”概念形成的起点。从目前留下的手稿来看，马克思将批判的矛头直指李斯特引以为傲的生产力理论。由于李斯特强调区分财富与财富的原因，着重探讨作为财富原因的生产力，看上去他的理论颇具创新意义，并且非常重视人及其能力。对此，马克思指出，李斯特割裂财富与财富的原因，实际上是把人贬低为物。在私有制条件下，即使人具有作为财富的原因、作为“生产力”的荣誉，他也无法摆脱被机器、牲畜等其他力量所取代的命运。不仅如此，李斯特还误解了现代生产力，更没有意识到工业所创造的真正的人的生产力。李斯特宣扬“国家经济学”和“民族精神”所代表的民族性，只不过道出了德国资产者的心声，即在国内缓和与无产者的斗争，在国外展开与其他资产者的竞争。在马克思看来，必须跳出现代工业目前所处的历史阶段，立足世界历史的视野来认识现代工业对于促进人的发展所具有的意义。随着唯物史观的确立，马克思进一步指出，“生产力是人们的实践能力的结果”，它既是以往时代活动的产物，又是人们在一定的社会阶段的共同活动方式。他还强调：“在一切生产工具中，最强大的一种生产力是革命阶级本身。”

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that new quality productive forces are advanced productive forces in which innovation plays a leading role, and their characteristic is innovation. [3]3 Xi Jinping, speech during the 11th collective study session of the Politburo of the 20th CPC Central Committee (January 31, 2024). This assertion, grounded in the extensive and profound transformations in contemporary technology and industry, affirms the important role of subjects’ innovative activities and innovative capabilities in developing advanced productive forces. So-called innovation is essentially people following the objective laws of the development of things, adopting various means and measures to achieve metabolism, discarding the old for the new, or bringing forth the new from the old. In the economic and social sphere, scientific and technological innovation is an important form of innovation, and talent is an important support for innovation. Developing new quality productive forces requires, on the one hand, emphasizing the driving role of innovation, especially scientific and technological innovation, and on the other hand, vigorously cultivating innovative talents. Whether it is improving the national innovation system, enhancing the efficiency of the innovation system, or building an innovative country, all are inseparable from talents with innovative thinking, innovative capabilities, and an innovative spirit.

习近平总书记指出，新质生产力是创新起主导作用的先进生产力，其特点是创新。这一论断立足当代技术和产业领域广泛而深刻的变革，肯定了主体的创新活动和创新能力在发展先进生产力中的重要作用。所谓创新，本质上是人们遵循事物发展的客观规律，采取各种手段和措施实现新陈代谢、除旧布新或推陈出新。在经济社会领域，科技创新是创新的重要形式，人才是创新的重要支撑。发展新质生产力，一方面要重视发挥创新特别是科技创新的驱动作用，另一方面要大力培养创新型人才。无论是完善国家创新体系、提升创新体系效能，还是建设创新型国家，都离不开具有创新思维、创新能力、创新精神的人才。

Optimizing the Factor Structure of Advanced Productive Forces

优化先进生产力的要素结构

The concept of productive forces is not only the foundation of historical materialism but also a core category of Marx’s critique of political economy. In *Capital* and its manuscripts, Marx analyzed the factor structure of productive forces. The formation of new quality productive forces is the result of revolutionary breakthroughs in contemporary technology, innovative allocation of productive factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading. Developing new quality productive forces inevitably requires optimizing the factor structure of productive forces.

生产力概念不仅是历史唯物主义的基础，而且是马克思政治经济学批判的核心范畴。在《资本论》及其手稿中，马克思分析了生产力的要素结构。新质生产力的形成是当代社会的技术革命性突破、生产要素创新性配置、产业深度转型升级的结果，发展新质生产力必然要求优化生产力的要素结构。

Generally speaking, productive forces are formed in the material production activities of humans transforming nature, referring to the material power people use to transform nature to meet their own needs. And people’s material production activities are labor, that is, “a process in which man, through his own activities, mediates, regulates and controls the metabolism between himself and nature.” [4]4 Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 7, Section 1 (1867). Therefore, Marx’s analysis of the simple labor process and its elements in Volume I of *Capital* is equally applicable to productive forces. Since the labor process is the process by which human activity, through the means of labor, brings about a predetermined change in the object of labor, labor itself, the object of labor, and the means of labor constitute the basic elements of the simple labor process. From the perspective of results and products, both the object of labor and the means of labor belong to the means of production, while labor itself belongs to productive labor. Comparatively speaking, Marx placed greater emphasis on the role of the means of labor in reflecting the development of productive forces. “The means of labor are not only the measure of the development of human labor power, but also the indicator of the social relations under which labor is carried on.” [5]5 Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 7, Section 1 (1867). In world history, the invention and spread of gunpowder, the compass, and the printing press heralded the arrival of bourgeois society in Europe; in capitalist society, the truly capitalist form of relative surplus value production began with cooperation, passed through the stages of division of labor and manufacture, and matured in large-scale machine industry. These three stages respectively represent different modes of combining the elements of productive forces in capitalist production.

一般而言，生产力形成于人类改造自然的物质生产活动中，是指人们改造自然以满足自身需要的物质力量。而人们的物质生产活动就是劳动，即“人以自身的活动来中介、调整和控制人和自然之间的物质变换的过程”。所以，马克思在《资本论》第一卷中对简单劳动过程及其要素的分析同样适用于生产力。由于劳动过程是人的活动借助劳动资料而使劳动对象发生预定的变化，劳动本身、劳动对象和劳动资料三方面就构成简单劳动过程的基本要素。从结果和产品来看，劳动对象和劳动资料都属于生产资料，劳动本身则属于生产劳动。相比较而言，马克思更为重视劳动资料在反映生产力发展方面的作用。“劳动资料不仅是人类劳动力发展的测量器，而且是劳动借以进行社会关系的指示器。”在世界历史上，火药、指南针和印刷术的发明与推广，预告了欧洲资产阶级社会的到来；在资本主义社会，真正具有资本主义性质的相对剩余价值生产始于协作，经历了分工和工场手工业阶段，在机器大工业中发展成熟。这三个阶段分别代表了资本主义生产中的生产力要素组合的不同方式。

New quality productive forces take the leap in workers, means of labor, objects of labor, and their optimized combination as their basic connotation, aiming to promote the development of productive forces by optimizing the factor structure, which conforms to the inherent requirements of the development of advanced productive forces. From the perspective of workers, China has currently entered a stage of deep aging, with a slight decrease in the working-age population, but the labor force remains abundant, and the labor participation rate is at a relatively high level internationally. Developing new quality productive forces faces the challenge of shifting from a “demographic dividend” model to a “talent dividend” model, requiring further improvement in the population’s scientific and cultural quality and continuous improvement in the population’s health level. From the perspective of the means of labor and the object of labor, the advent of the era of artificial intelligence has accelerated the transformation of the means of labor from industrialization to digitalization and intelligence, and the object of labor from tangible things to intangible things such as data and information. Developing new quality productive forces under these circumstances requires strengthening the ability to integrate innovation-driven systems, actively absorbing and gathering innovative factor resources, promoting the efficient allocation of factor resources, and activating the value potential of new types of factors.

新质生产力以劳动者、劳动资料、劳动对象及其优化组合的跃升为基本内涵，旨在通过优化要素结构来推动生产力发展，符合先进生产力发展的内在要求。从劳动者来看，当前我国已进入深度老龄化阶段，劳动年龄人口有所减少，但是劳动力依然充沛，劳动参与率在国际上处于较高水平。发展新质生产力面临从“人口红利”模式转向“人才红利”模式的挑战，需要进一步提高人口科学文化素质、持续改善人口健康水平。从劳动资料和劳动对象来看，人工智能时代的到来，加速了劳动资料从工业化向数字化和智能化、劳动对象从有形物向数据和信息等无形物的转型。在这一背景下发展新质生产力，就要求加强整合创新驱动系统能力，积极吸纳和集聚创新要素资源，促进要素资源高效配置，激活新型要素价值潜能。

Advancing Institutional Innovation in Advanced Productive Forces

推进先进生产力的制度创新

Historical materialism holds that productive forces and relations of production are two inseparable aspects of the material production activities of humans transforming nature. However, their positions in social production activities are unequal, and their development is not synchronized. Among them, productive forces are the most active factor and the most revolutionary force in historical activities. Changes in the life of the times and transformations in the mode of production are often heralded and marked by changes in productive forces, especially the means of labor. When the development of productive forces exceeds the scope that existing relations of production can accommodate, a historical demand arises to adjust or completely transform the relations of production. This is what Marx meant when he said, “All changes in people’s productive forces necessarily cause changes in their relations of production.” [6]6 Marx, *The Poverty of Philosophy* (1847). Nevertheless, as the conditions and modes of combining the various elements of productive forces, relations of production largely determine the scope of action of productive forces. Therefore, relations of production inevitably exert a counteracting effect, either promoting or hindering the development of productive forces. In *Capital*, Marx not only discussed the historical process by which the state creates conditions for primitive accumulation through measures such as the colonial system, protectionism, confiscatory taxes, and punitive laws, but also explored the important role of the working-day system, the banking and credit system in promoting the production of surplus value and accelerating the circulation of capital. Marx further pointed out that as the contradiction between the socialization of production and capitalist private ownership intensifies, “the knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.” [7]7 Marx, *Capital*, Volume I, Chapter 32 (1867).

历史唯物主义认为，生产力与生产关系是人类改造自然的物质生产活动中密不可分的两个方面。但是，它们在社会生产活动中所处的地位不平等，发展也不同步。其中，生产力是历史活动中最活跃的因素和最具革命性的力量。时代生活的变迁与生产方式的变革，往往以生产力特别是劳动资料的变化为先兆和标志。当生产力的发展超出现有生产关系所能容纳的范围时，就会出现调整或彻底改造生产关系的历史要求。这就是马克思所说的“人们生产力的一切变化必然引起他们的生产关系的变化”。尽管如此，生产关系作为生产力诸要素结合的条件和方式，很大程度上决定着生产力的作用范围。因此，生产关系必然会对生产力的发展起到促进或阻碍的反作用。在《资本论》中，马克思不仅论述了国家通过殖民制度、保护主义、没收性税收、惩罚性法律等措施为原始积累创造条件的历史过程，而且探讨了工作日制度、银行和信用制度对促进剩余价值生产和加速资本流通的重要作用。马克思进一步指出，随着生产社会化与资本主义私有制之间的矛盾愈发激烈，“资本主义私有制的丧钟就要响了。剥夺者就要被剥夺了”。

Since reform and opening up, by continuously adjusting relations of production to unleash the vitality of social productive forces, China’s economic and social development has

改革开放以来，通过不断调整生产关系激发社会生产力发展活力，我国经济社会发展取得了举世瞩目的成就。习近平总书记指出：“发展新质生产力，必须进一步全面深化改革，形成与之相适应的新型生产关系。”从创新视角来看，无论是培养和发挥创新主体的能力，还是吸纳和集聚创新要素资源，都离不开科学有效的体制机制。习近平总书记多次在重要讲话中用各种链条来形容科技创新从基础研究成果到技术应用，再到产业化推广的科技成果转移扩散全过程。推进发展新质生产力的体制机制创新，特别是深化经济体制、科技体制等改革，既需要政府超前规划引导、科学政策支持，也需要市场机制调节、企业等微观主体不断创新；既需要创新链、产业链和资金链的精准对接，也需要打通创新链、产业链和资金链上的诸多堵点；既离不开政府“有形之手”，也不能缺少市场“无形之手”；既需要建立高标准市场体系，畅通国内大市场，也要扩大高水平对外开放，营造良好国际环境。

(The author is a professor at the School of Philosophy, Wuhan University, and a researcher at the Hubei Provincial Collaborative Innovation Center for Marxist Theory and Chinese Practice.)

（作者系武汉大学哲学学院教授、马克思主义理论与中国实践湖北省协同创新中心研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧