p The task of administration is primarily that of directing peopie and organising their labour scientifically. But people are living, thinking and active beings. They have definite interests, aspirations and material and spiritual requirements. They work and participate in social, political and cultural activities under the influence of definite factors, which must be taken into consideration when these people are provided with leadership and organised for one task or another. Requirements are the most important factor stimulating people’s actions and creative work. “No one,” Marx wrote, “can do anything without at the same time doing it for the sake of one or other of his needs and for the sake of the organ of this need.”  [200•* 

p Under socialism the measure of satisfying requirements is the quantity and quality of labour. In organising scientific administration, it is therefore extremely important to adjust the measure of the satisfaction of the requirements of each person to the degree of his labour activity, to the quantity and quality of the labour expended by him, to the size of his contribution to the social wealth. If he works well his requirements are satisfied more than those of the person who works poorly. If he has harmed the state he has to bear material responsibility and the satisfaction of his requirements is restricted. Under socialism that is the substance of personal material incentive dictated by the law of distribution according to work.

p In socialist society, however, man works not alone but in 201 a collective (factory, collective or slate farm, or other enterprise), and, therefore, the measure of his labour contribution and, correspondingly, the measure of the satisfaction of his requirements largely depend upon the labour contribution of the production collective as a whole. Consequently, personal material incentive is part and parcel of the collective material incentive. In its turn, an individual enterprise is only a link in the country’s economic system, and the welfare of the entire personnel of that enterprise and of each of its employees individually depends on the successes of the entire economy.

Far from belittling the role of moral incentives for work, Lenin insisted that material and moral incentives should be intelligently combined, and attached particularly great significance to material incentives. He wrote that the transition to communism can be effected not directly by enthusiasm but, “aided by the enthusiasm engendered by the great revolution, on the basis of personal interest, personal incentive and business principles”.  [201•*  Economic incentives, i.e., an account of the interests and requirements of people, derive from the requirements of objective laws and come forward as a major principle of the scientific management of production and administration of society as a whole. Scientific administration presupposes not only efficient planning founded on accurate computations but also improved economic incentives, the achievement of harmonious unity of the economic interests of society and of each individual enterprise and individual worker. These incentives take the economic interests of people into account, facilitate an increasingly fuller satisfaction of their material and spiritual requirements, and induce individuals and entire collectives to raise their labour productivity, introduce more efficiency in their organisation, spend material and financial resources rationally, improve qualifications and achieve a higher cultural level. This helps to expand and improve production, boost the national income and increase the share of the national income used for the people’s consumption. Moreover, the growth of production is accompanied by an improvement of all other aspects of social activity.