State Socialist Property (Belonging to all the People), the principal, leading form of socialist property. The essence of state property is that all members of society are related to one another as joint owners of the means of production, i. e., the means of production are socialised on the scale of the entire economy. Having the means of production owned by individual collectives of enterprises would have amounted to the establishment of group ownership, which is incompatible with socialism. State socialist property radically differs from state capitalist property and from statemonopoly property, which are specific forms of private capitalist ownership of the means of production, and which express relations involved in the exploitation of the working people. State socialist property emerges as a result of the socialist revolution and the nationalisation (in diverse forms) of capitalist and landowner property; it evolves, is multiplied and improved in the course of socialist expanded reproduction (see Reproduction, Socialist). In the USSR, the land, its minerals, waters, and forests are the exclusive property of the state, which also owns the basic means of production in industry, construction and agriculture; means of transport and communication; the banks; the property of state-run trade organisations and public utilities, and other state-run undertakings; most urban housing; and other property necessary for state purposes. The state also owns many scientific research and cultural institutes. In the USSR, about 90 per cent of the fixed production assets are owned by the state. The labour and the very existence of the working class, which is the leading force of socialist society, are directly linked with this form of socialist property. State socialist property determines the development and improvement of the entire system of socialist relations of production including collective farm-and-cooperative property. In a developed socialist society, the scale of production in the state sector of the economy constantly grows, and its social character is enhanced. Advances in science and technology invariably lead to greater concentration and centralisation of production, while specialisation and cooperation 345 of production at enterprises owned by the whole people are intensified, and its social character enhanced. In the collective farm and cooperative sector as well new forms of interdepartmental links are emerging, founded on a combination of the two forms of socialist property. The rate and scale of growth of all sectors of the economy, the advance of science and culture, and the people’s higher living standards depend primarily on the level of development of the state sector of production. The existence of state enterprises (those owned by the whole people) is rooted in state property. Everything state enterprises produce is at the exclusive disposal of society as a whole, and is distributed and sold by state agencies according to plan and at prices fixed in a centralised manner. State enterprises are managed according to the principle of democratic centralism (see Democratic Centralism in Economic Management), one-man management and cost accounting. Directors of enterprises are selected by the state organs and are the state’s authorised agents vested with responsibility for fulfilling the plans and for the Results of economic activities. Remuneration for the labour of workers at state enterprises is regulated in conformity with standards established by the state and is paid from the national fund. Social, primarily state (that of the whole people) ownership of the means of production is the foundation of socialism and the main source of its advancement. With the consolidation of social ownership, the working people are becoming aware of their position as the supreme owners of social wealth; they are turning into zealous collective masters of production; the socialist way of life is striking deep roots with collectivist conscience and behaviour emerging; the organisation level is becoming higher; a business-like approach to matters at hand and discipline in state planning and labour are being consolidated; the vestiges of individualism are being eradicated and all attempts to thrive at the expense of other people and society as a whole are being consistently checked. State property ( belonging to all the people) is crucial to the evolution of socialist relations of production into communist relations of production, to the gradual rapprochement between the diverse forms of socialist property, and to the creation of a single form of communist property.