Economic Policy of the CPSU, the concentrated and scientifically substantiated expression of the activity of the 112 CPSU in the principal sphere of social life—material production. It stems from the vital interests of the working class and of all working people, accounts for the higher requirements of social progress and finds its expression in determining the objectives and guidelines of economic development as applied to the concrete historical period. Depending on the duration of this period and the character of the tasks of social development, the economic policy of the CPSU is subdivided into a long-term economic strategy, and economic tactics planned for a relatively short term which will determine the ways of implementing the economic strategy, the urgent tasks of economic development and the ways of resolving them. The economic policy of the CPSU reflects the ultimate goal of the revolutionary movement of the working class—the building of a genuine communist society; it organically combines the vital interests of the working class with those of the peasantry and the people’s intelligentsia. The economic policy of the CPSU is evolved and implemented with the active participation of the working people, this being its principal feature. The scientific character of the CPSU’s economic policy is determined by the fact that it is based on the conscious use of the objective economic laws and tendencies of social development. When determining the perspectives of economic development, evolving economic and social development plans, and making important decisions on managing the economy, the CPSU takes into consideration the objective laws and the real possibilities of achieving what has to be done relying on advanced practical experience and the achievements of science and technology, and thus pinpoints most efficient methods for attaining the goals. Being a concentrated expression of the economy, the policy of the socialist state, on its part, has an active influence on the economy, speeding up its development. The political approach to the solution of economic matters means the approach based on the interests of the working class, expressing the vital interests of all the working people, the priority of the interests of the whole of society over the interests of industries, regions and enterprises. The policy of the Communist Party in the context of developed socialism is based on the scientific conception of this stage worked out by the CPSU and other fraternal parties. Providing steadily rising living standards, fully satisfying the requirements and achieving all-round development of all members of society is the highest goal of the economic policy of the CPSU. Worked out and implemented under the guidance of the CPSU, the economic policy is concretely embodied in the economic and organisational activity of the socialist state, in the undertakings to perfect the economic mechanism and in the country’s plans of social and economic development (see Economic Planning; Economic Role of the Socialist State).