Marx＇s Four Expositions of His Theory of Social Formation and Their Historico-philosophic Significance

通过对马克思有关社会形态演进的四次论说的考察，证明他的社会形态理论的核心内容在于既肯定各民族社会形态从低级向高级发展规律的共同性，又肯定他们发展道路的多样性。他在19世纪晚期提出现代化后进国家可能不经过资本主义而建立社会主义社会的理论设想，是马克思社会形态理论的重大发展。中国共产党人提出的社会主义初级阶段理论和建设有中国特色的社会主义理论，是马克思主义社会形态理论的最新发展。

An examination of Marx＇s exposition of the evolution of social formations on four occasions shows that the core content of his social formation theory consists in its affirmation of both the universality of the law of the development of social formations from lower to higher stages in different nations and the diversity of their developmental paths. The theoretical assumptions he put forward in the late 19th century about the possibility of late- developing modernizers being able to establish a socialist society without passing through the stage of capitalism represent a major development of his theory of social formations. The theory of the primary stage of socialism and the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics advanced by the Chinese Communists are the latest development of Marx＇s theory of social formations.