Building Socialism, 7th Jan., 2011.

According to Michael Lindsay's article:

The explanation of the actual Communist choice is almost certainly that "Socialism," defined in Communist terms, is a more important objective than productivity or raising the standard of living. It is possible that this priority for "Socialism" comes partly from a deeper motivation of securing power for the Communist Party, but the evidence can be best explained by assuming that there is also a deep-seated belief in the value of "Socialism" as an end in itself--that motivation comes from a desire to realise the vision of an ideal human society for the construction of which Communist theory is believed to offer infallible guidance. There is evidence suggesting that even the most unrealistic parts of this vision of "Socialist" society have an influence which sometimes worries the Communist leadership. For instance, people who argue that a Socialist society should have a moneyless economy and say that, "Economic accounting is the legal right of the bourgeoisie," were criticised in a fairly recent article which suggests that they were numerous enough to have appreciable influence in the Party. [3] And similar influences at the very top levels of the Party-Mao's hope to see a Communist society before he died-may have been important in producing the communes programme.