Concept and composition of the world's productive forces
The state of the country's economy depends on the level of development of its productive forces. The level of productive forces determines the dynamics of the growth of national wealth and productivity of public labor.
Productive forces of the society are an interdependent set of personal and material (material) factors of production.
In their composition we can distinguish the following most essential elements that make up the productive forces:
- social (labor, heritage of cultural and economic development)
- natural (mineral and biological resources)
- technological (a combination of used means of production and methods of its organization)
The factors that directly determine the state, dynamics and nature (intensive, extensive) of the development of productive forces should include, first, the rational use of natural and labor resources, scientific and technological progress, effective organization of the national economy, mutually beneficial participation in the international division of labor and economic cooperation.
The development of the productive forces of the country (or region) is influenced by external and internal conditions: geographical location, availability of natural resources, labor skills and cultural traditions, political stability, international cooperation.
Types of productive forces
The following main types of productive forces can be distinguished depending on the level of development and the nature of use of their main elements and socioeconomic organization of production: preindustrial, industrial and post-industrial.
At present, the dominant type of production force in the world economy is the industrial type of production force.
Preindustrial uses of productive forces and economic organization dominate the traditional sectors of many developing countries, especially in tropical Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America. Essentially, most of the economies of these countries are dualistic preindustrial and industrial elements of the productive forces.
Post-industrial (IT-based) development of the productive forces is characteristic of certain areas (and sectors of the economy) of the leading developed countries, primarily the USA, Japan, England, France, Germany, as well as a number of newly industrialized countries and China.
Scientific and technological progress
Scientific and technological progress is the most important factor in the development of productive forces, affecting the state of all their elements.
At the present stage of scientific and technological progress, the role of natural resources in economic development is significantly reduced, and the dependence of the processing industry on mineral and agricultural raw materials is gradually reduced. Under the influence of scientific and technological progress there are changes in the means of labor. The development of microelectronics, robotics and pyrotechnics has led to the creation of flexible industrial systems in which all operations on mechanical processing of the product are carried out consistently and continuously. This expands the possibilities of automation, increases labor productivity by increasing the coefficient of use of equipment and reducing the time spent on auxiliary operations. The development of scientific and technological progress has led to the reduction of the time gap between the development of technology and its application in practice, and this in turn has reduced the life cycle of industrial products.
The current stage of scientific and technological progress can be characterized as a post-industrial stage, in the course of which a new system of productive forces is formed, based on the global information space, the latest technologies, including technologies of management and organization of the economy. There are two forms of scientific and technological progress — evolutionary (within the existing technological methods) and revolutionary (creation of new scientific and technological principles).
The leading driving force that determines the direction and nature of the development of productive forces is the economic role of the state, which, using its institutions of power, primarily legislative, forms organizational and socioeconomic relations in society, based on the diversity of ownership structures and relevant types of farms within a particular mode of production.