Editing Productive forces

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

In [[Marx|Karl Marx]] and [[Engels|Friedrich Engels]]' own critique of political economy, it refers to the combination of the [[Means of production|means of labor]] (tools, machinery, land, infrastructure, and so on) with human [[labour power]]. 

Together with the social and technical [[relations of production]], the productive forces constitute a historically specific [[mode of production]].

The productive forces are the unity of means of production and labour:
# All labour (individual, union)
# Instruments of production (buildings, machines)
# Subjects of production (raw materials, labor)

== Modern uses ==
While the definition of productive forces hasn't changed, it's become a popular term in recent decades as the [[People's Republic of China]] (PRC) has been emphasizing increasing their economy's productive forces in order to advance to higher stages of socialism, and eventually to the lofty ideal of [[communism]], where there is [[Post-scarcity|immense material abundance]].

=== Deng Xiaoping ===
[[Deng Xiaoping]], the former leader of the PRC, wrote about the productive forces, writing about how the implementation of [[market socialism]] would help China to liberate and develop its productive forces.<ref>[https://dengxiaopingworks.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/there-is-no-fundamental-contradiction-between-socialism-and-a-market-economy/ There Is No Fundamental Contradiction Between Socialism and a Market Economy]</ref>

== External links ==
{{External links|Wikipedia=[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Productive_forces]|Leftypedia=|EcuRed=}}