ПРОГРЕСС И РЕГРЕСС В ОБЩЕСТВЕННОМ РАЗВИТИИ

Progress and Retrogression in Social Development

Opposite forms of social development as a whole or individual aspects of it, signifying respectively either the progressive development of society on an ascending line, its rise, or the reversion to the old, outlived forms, stagnation, and decay. The criterion of social Progress is the degree of development of the productive forces, of the economic system, and the institutions of its superstructure determined by it, together with the development and dissemination of science and culture, the development of the individual, the degree of extension of social freedom. The development of the mode of production is basic and decisive here.

In individual historical periods, in individual countries an essential, if not decisive significance for the description of social development from the point of view of Progress or Retrogression may, on the strength of their relative independence, attach to such social phenomena as political life, culture, education, etc., although they are secondary, derivative and determined by the economic system. The history of the countries where a fascist dictatorial regime was established, or is established (see Fascism) may serve as example of social Retrogression determined by political factors.

The development of antagonistic socio-economic formations is extremely contradictory. Although in certain periods of history these formations serve as stages of Progress, in the period of decline and decay, the features of Retrogression become the dominant ones. However, in this period Retrogression cannot be universal, inasmuch as the basic tendency in the development of mankind as a whole is not Retrogression but Progress, which in the case in point is expressed in the emergence of the elements and prerequisites of a new society and in the development of certain aspects of social life.

Thus, for example, the Retrogression observed in the development of bourgeois society in the imperialist era is accompanied by Progress in many branches of science and technology, as well as in a number of other social phenomena. However, to assess the vitality of a given society, its ability to show Progress or Retrogression, it is more important to determine the general tendency of its development, which aids classes and social groups interested in social Progress to cognize more deeply and apply the laws of social development.

The concepts "Progress" and "Retrogression" are interpreted differently in philosophy and sociology. The scientists in the period of the progressive development of capitalism (Vico, Herder, Hegel, and others) recognized Progress and tried to find its rational foundation. Scientists in the period of the decline of capitalism either reduce the concept "Progress" to the spheres of individual cultures and civilizations (Spengler, Toynbee) or do not admit the possibility of studying Progress in history. They try to explain Retrogression by the action of purely subjective factors, the Retrogression of nazi Germany, for example, by the features of Hitler's personality and by the activities of the National-Socialist Party.

Marxism-Leninism gives a scientific explanation of Progress and Retrogression. Progress as a progressive development without relapses into Retrogression is possible only in a non-antagonistic, communist society.