New Developments in Contemporary Capitalism

Capitalism has been in existence in human history for several hundred years.Regarding its phases of development,China's scholarly consensus seems to accept a 3-step trajectory from merchant capitalism to free-market capitalism and on to monopoly capitalism.Concerning contemporary capitalism,most political economists in China have been overly doctrinaire and conservative.This author believes that contemporary capitalism has reached the new stage of social capitalism,not monopoly capitalism.Understanding this new stage is significant to our understanding the raison d'etre of China's Special Economic Zones and to exploring China's unique socialist path.