Abstract

After entering the 21st century，there’s an urgent need for the creation of certain scientific theory in order to build a moderately prosperous society and accelerate the socialist modernization with Chinese characteristics．Scientific outlook on development is put forward by the Communist Party of China to keep abreast with the requirements of the modern era．In the practice of implementing scientific outlook on development，there are new achievements in contemporary theory on social development．This thesis reveals the new progress made in contemporary theory on social development，by absorbing the reasonable components of the social development theory abroad，analyzing and integrating the current research results of social development theory，on the basis of the Marxist theory on social development and the new practice of implementing the scientific outlook on development．

Despite the introduction and conclusion，this thesis consists of two parts:

The first part explains the main content of the Marxist theory on social development，after clarifying what is social development，analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary Western theories on social development，overview the new features and new progress of the theories on social development made by Chinese scholars，and finally narrate the theoretical innovation and development of the Marxist theory on social development．

Based on the analysis and integration of the current academic achievements made by the scholars both domestic and international，the guiding of historical materialism and the new practicing of scientific outlook on development，the second part reveals thenew progress of the theories on social development made by Chinese scholars from five aspects—human development theory，social transfor-mation theory，the theory on stages of social development，the theory on the driving forces of social development，and the theory on the construction of society．Followed are the main contents:

Firstly，the value pursuits of contemporary Chinese society arefree and overall development of the people．On one hand，the people－oriented scientific outlook on development establishes the dominant position of the person and clarifies the rich connotation of human development，which further enriches Marxist theory on human development in the new historical conditions．On the other hand，in the process of building a harmonious socialist society，the contradictions between social development and human development have been resolved gradually，which promotes the development of human．At last，the free and overall development of people is the goal of the development of human society．And the free and overall development of people should be promoted from the aspects as followed: the development of productive forces，the system construction，education，cultivating and shaping healthy personality，and ecological civilization．

Secondly，people－orientedness，integrity，and harmony are the features showed in the transition of contemporary Chinese society．On one hand，it is showed in the thesis that contemporary Chinese society is in the dual transition phase: from a traditional society to a modern society and from the Soviet model of socialism to socialism with Chinese characteristics，by analyzing the social transformation from the perspective of social forms on economy and social forms on technology．On the other hand，scientific outlook on development is playing a role as guidance in the contemporary social transition of China．Scientific outlook on development accelerates the healthy development of the economy and society of China in social transition，which makes the theory of social transition in contemporary China possess the feature of people－orientedness and integrity in the new era．Finally，the relations between the transition of contemporary Chinese society and building a harmonious society are elaborated in the thesis．After analyzing the problems and challenges facing contemporary social transition of China，the relations between the transition of contemporary Chinese society and building a harmonious society are discussed．Also illustrated in the thesis are the harmony and the trend of development in the process of contemporary social transition in China．

Thirdly，China has ushered in a new stage of building a well－off society．On one hand，by absorbing the reasonable component of the thought on stages of development of human society of western thinkers abroad，on the basis of the Marxist theory on stages of development of human society，the thesis points out that China is on the phase of undeveloped socialism，that is to say the primary stage of socialism．On the other hand，based on the longitudinal analysis and lateral inspecting of the stage of contemporary Chinese social society，it can be concluded that the realistic combination of the diachronic Chinese social development and synchronic Chinese social development is the new stage of building a well－off society，which enriches the theory on primary stage of socialism．At last，the value pursuit and basic path of the building a well－off society are discussed in the thesis，based on scientific outlook on development．

Fourthly，what has been newly achieved in the theory on social driving forces by China based on scientific outlook on development is analyzed and illustrated in this thesis．Now，adhering to the people－oriented scientific outlook on development is the combination of Marxist theory on the purposes of social development and Marxist theory on social driving forces．Social basic contradiction remains the fundamental driving force in promoting the economic and social development of contemporary China，and reform，science and technology are the direct driving forces to promote the scientific development of contemporary Chinese society．Economic construction，political construction，cultural construction，social construction and ecological construction are forming a joint force to promote the development of contemporary China．These five parts are in not simple parallel relationship，but promote each other and form a joint force to promote the scientific development of contemporary Chinese society．These specific driving factors form different process of driving the economic and social development of China．Because of the diversity and multi－direction of these driving factors，certainintegration mechanism should be implemented to unify different forces and trends，which，thus，form a positive joint force to drive the economic and social development of contemporary Chinese society．

Finally，we mustadhere to the people－orientedness concept，and promote social construction in the process of improving people＇s livelihood and innovating management．On one hand，based on the guidance of scientific outlook on development，the social construction of contemporary China must adhere to the people－orientedness concept and put this concept into education，employment，health care，social security，people’s income and social management，etc．At the same time，according to the requirement of comprehensive，balanced and sustainable development，the all aspects of the modernization should be properly handled，in order to push forward the development of the social construction in the process of contemporary Chinese economic and social development．On the other hand，in the process of building a harmonious socialist society，the social construction is the basic approach and the core of building a harmonious socialist society，and promoting social harmony is the pursuit the construction of contemporary Chinese society．In the end，the primary task of current stage of social construction is to improve the people’s livelihood and innovate social management．For one thing，China must improve the social construction in the areas of education，employment，residents’income，social security and health care，etc，which are the important tasks of social construction and closely bound up with the interests of people．For another，China must strengthen and reform social management，set up the system of social management as soon as possible and build socialist social management system with Chinese characteristics．

Keyword: scientific outlook on development; contemporary China’s social development theory; innovation