Law of Distribution According to Work Done, an economic law of socialism, according to which consumer goods are distributed between workers in accordance with the quantity and quality of the labour expended by each of them in social production. The mode of distribution is determined by the mode of production. Engels wrote on socialist society: "Distribution, in so far as it is governed by purely economic considerations, will be regulated by the interests of production, and ... production is most encouraged by a mode of distribution which allows all members of society to develop, maintain and exercise their capacities with maximum universality" ( Engels, Anti-Duhring, p. 243). The existing level of development of the productive forces, which does not yet guarantee an abundance of all consumer goods, the nature of labour, which has not yet become the prime vital requirement for every individual, and the need to offer personal material incentives are all factors making it impossible to introduce distribution according to needs at the first stage of communism. It is equally impossible under socialism to distribute material values among the working people on an equal basis, irrespective of the extent of their participation in social production. Wage levelling equalises the people’s requirements and hinders the development of their labour activity and abilities. Distribution of consumer goods according to the principle "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work" accords with the objective conditions of socialism. Every worker gets back from society the exact equivalent of what he has given it, minus deductions for founding the social funds. The socialist state regards controlling the measure of labour and the measure of consumption as one of its central tasks. By making the size of payment dependent on the quantity and quality of labour expended, the socialist mode of distribution encourages every worker to raise the technical level of production, to carry out mechanisation and automation, to introduce progressive technology, and to improve the organisation of production and labour; it ensures the workers’ material interest in raising their skills and cultural and technical standards, and promotes stronger labour and technological discipline, a creative attitude to work, a sense of responsibility 192 for the results of one’s own work and that of one’s comrades, and collectivist relations in production, in other words, the moral qualities of a new type of man. By ensuring personal and collective material interest of the workers in boosting production and raising its efficiency, distribution according to work done makes it possible to balance the working people’s personal and public interests correctly and to satisfy their diverse needs to a fuller extent (see Material and Moral Incentives). Payment according to work done is an essential element of the right to work, guaranteed to the citizens of the USSR by the Soviet Constitution. The law of distribution according to work done operates in both the state and the collective farm-and-cooperative sectors of the national economy, though the forms in which it manifests itself differ in relation to the different forms of socialist ownership of the means of production. In state enterprises belonging to society as a whole, goods are distributed through the system of wages and salaries on the basis of work quotas and wage rates that are uniform for the entire state sector (see Wages under Socialism). In cooperatives (on collective farms), the income made by a given farm and belonging to a given collective is distributed on the basis of work quotas and payment rates fixed by the collective itself. As the socialist economy develops and the state and collective farmand-cooperative forms of ownership of the means of production draw closer together, these differences in the way the law of distribution according to work done is implemented are gradually smoothed over. The specific forms of distribution according to work done are determined by the operating economic mechanism. A system of measures has been introduced in the Soviet Union to turn the distribution of consumer goods among the workers into an increasingly effective means for raising the efficiency of social production, labour productivity, the quality of work and products, lowering the cost of product and attaining top final results in the economy. In this connection, attention is being focused on ensuring a better correspondence between the remuneration of labourers and the quantity and quality of labour expended by them; improvements are being introduced in the procedure by which the economic incentives funds are formed and used; team forms of labour organisation are gaining currency; broader rights are being granted to production, work collectives (see Collective, Work, Production) and production teams in evaluating and remunerating their members for work done, taking due account of the actual contribution made by each member to the overall results of the work; the stimulating role of the bonus systems is being enhanced. Distribution according to work done is a basic form of distribution of goods under socialism. Part of the necessary product intended for non-productive ( including personal) consumption is distributed under socialism through the social consumption funds. Under complete communism, when the productive forces provide an abundance of material wealth, and labour for the sake of society becomes the prime vital need of every man, the law of distribution according to work done will be replaced by the principle "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" (see Communist Mode of Production).