Study The Influence Of Western Social Democracy Thought In China

The Western Social Democratic Thought has a great influence on Modern Chinaand Contemporary China. This article has taken a systematical combing on thisinfluence historically. On basis of the combing, we provide satisfactory answers forthis kind of questions, such as “Why Social Democracy cannot save Modern China?”“Why Democratic Socialism isn’t suitable for Contemporary China?” The basicconcepts and main contents of this paper mainly are:On the eve of the outbreak of World War II, the Western Social DemocraticThought has a history of more than100years and it has experienced three historicalstages. From the Great Charter movement of the1830s to the European Revolution of1848is the embryonic stage of Social Democratic Thought, from the end of theEuropean Revolution to the Fabianism arises in the1880s is the preliminary stage ofit’s development, from the Fabianism arises to the outbreak of World War II is thefinal formation stage. Before World War II, the origin of the Social DemocraticThought is quite extensive, mainly including the reformism and socialism ideologicaltrend of the Great Charter movement, the social democratic thought of the1848European Revolution, British unionism, the French Proudhon, the German Lassallism,Scientific Socialism (or Marxism), the British Fabianism, the France May doctrine,the Bernstein doctrine, Kautskyism, the British guild socialism, the Marx doctrine ofAustria, the Macdonald doctrine, Sweden socialist Hansen’s "people" thought andLaski’s social reform theory; wherein, the Bernstein doctrine, the British guildsocialism, the Macdonalddoctrine and Laski’s social reform theory have made a quitetremendous influence on Modern China.Chinese earliest exposure to western socialist ideological trend is during the periodof Westernization Movement; to the period of the reform movement of1898, thewestern socialist ideological trend began to spread in china massively. However, untilthe Russian October revolution of1917and even up to the eruption of the ChineseMay4th Movement, the western socialist ideological trend which has entered China isalmost entirely from Japan, Europe and America; of which Japan’s socialist thoughtoccupies the dominant position. In fact, the socialism ideological trend and movementof Japan, Europe and America have seriously social-democraticlized. Therefore, the earliest modern Chinese who accept the western socialist thoughts are influenced bythe social democratic thought unconsciously. After the May4th Movement, thescientific socialism of Russian has become the mainstream of socialism day by day;affected by this, the first Modern Chinese communists come into being, the bourgeoisrevolutionaries which with Sun Zhongshan as their representative are graduallymoving closer to the scientific socialism. However, the bourgeois conservative whichwith Jiang Kanghu and Socialist Party of China as their representatives, the bourgeoisreformists which with Liang Qichao, Zhang Dongsun, Zhang Junmai as theirrepresentatives are going farther and farther on the social democracy road. And thesects of the western social democracy which have the most far-reaching impact onModern China are the Bernstein doctrine, the British guild socialism, the Macdonalddoctrine and Laski’s social reform theory.The Social Democratic Thoughts have great influence on four political parties ofModern China, they are the bourgeois conservative which with Jiang Kanghu and theSocialist Party of China as their representatives, the bourgeois reformists which withLiang Qichao, Zhang Dongsun, Zhang Junmai and the Chinese National Socialist, theChinese Democratic Socialist Party as their representatives, the bourgeoisrevolutionaries which with Sun Zhongshan as their representative, the Communistintellectuals which with Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong as their representatives.Before and after the establishment of the Republic of China, Jiang Kanghu and hisChinese Socialist Party have sold some social democratic opinions under the bannerof "three noes". After the1920s, Jiang Kanghu proposed a "new democracy, newsocialism" idea of which the social democratic color was stronger. Liang Qichao wentinto exile in Japan and the United States after the reform movement of1898failed; heput forward the social reformism under the influence of the social democratic thoughtof Japan and the United States. Zhang Dongsun and Zhang Junmai made a greatcontribution to the dissemination of socialism in Modern China, but their socialistideology contains large number of Social Democracy components at the beginning.From the setting up of the China National Socialist Party in1934to the splitting of theChina Democratic Socialist Party in1947, Zhang Dongsun and Zhang Junmai aremore in favour of Social Democracy. Each of them proposed a systematic SocialDemocratic theory, so they are the most outstanding representatives of Social Democracy or Democratic Socialist in Modern China. The Chinese National SocialistParty and Democratic Socialist Party which under the leadership of Zhang Junmai,Zhang Dongsun et al. are bourgeois reformism parties. They are the most typicalSocial Democratic parties of Modern China. Sun Zhongshan advocated the statesocialism during the Xin Hai revolution period. After the May4th Movement, SunZhongshan became more and more inclined to accept the scientific socialism, but hecould’t get rid of the influence of social democracy completely,and didn’t turn into areal Marxiane. In addition to Sun Zhongshan, representatives of the the bourgeoisrevolutionaries of which Ma Junwu, Zhu Zhixin, Ye Xiasheng, Qian Zhixiu, Deng Shi,Song Jiaoren, Feng Ziyou, Lin Yungai, Hu Hanmin, Dai Jitao are all affected by thesocial democratic thought at different degrees. Most of the Modern ChineseCommunists escaped from the bourgeois intellectuals. All of them basically haveexperienced a transient phase during the transformation process from a bourgeoisdemocracy to a communist. It is exactly during this transitional period, their socialistideology contains many Social Democratic contents, and Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao andMao Zedong are the prominent representatives of them.After the Second World War, especially after the establishment of the SocialistInternational in1951, Social Democracy changed over to "Democratic Socialism".Throughout the cold war, Democratic Socialism which has formed a completetheoretical system in the guiding ideology, politics, economic policy, social affairs andinternational policy became the general ideology of every Social Democratic Party ofthe Socialist International. From the period of Su Dong revulsion, the SocialistInternational and most of the Social Democratic parties gradually substitute "SocialDemocracy" for "Democratic Socialism". However, comparing with the "SocialDemocracy" before World War II, the "Social Democracy" after Su Dong revulsionhas changed in many ways.From Oct.1949the foundation of the PRC to Dec.1979the third plenary session ofthe11th central committee which left the curtain on the reform and opening-up,Marxism-Leninism and Maoism ruled in Chinese mainland. The impact of WesternDemocratic Socialism in China which be reflected mainly via the relationshipbetween the Chinese government, the Communist Party of China and the westernSocial Democratic Party is very limited. In the30years that since the foundation of new China to the reform and opening-up, the relationship between the CommunistParty of China, the Chinese government and the western Social Democratic Party areboth hostile-and-opposite and friendly-and-contacted; of which hostility andopposition is the mainstream, and friendness and contaction is tributary. During theperiod of Sino-Soviet debate, the opposition and critique of revisionism (i.e.Democratic Socialism) became the primary task in the ideological field for theCommunist Party of China. This ideological critique movement accelerated thegrowth of the left-leaning ideological line of CCP, and played a catalytic role in thebrewing process of Cultural Revolution. However, the opposition and critique ofDemocratic Socialism also produced positive impact on our party and country, itmaked us to pay more attention to standing on our own in the course of socialistmodernization construction.Since the reform and opening-up, the influence of Democratic Socialism appears inChian once again. In1980s, the CCP has established inter-party relationship with theSocialist International and many Social Democratic parties of western countries, andmaintained friendly exchanges with each other. The Democratic Socialism becamepopular in China gradually in this atmosphere, and the most representative event is theintroduction and propagation of the Swedish Model, i.e. the so-called "the SwedishFervour". Before and after the drastic changes of former Soviet and Eastern Europe,the Social Democrats attempted to promote Chinese upheaval which brought briefsetback to the relationship between the CCP and the SDP. Therefore, from the late1980s to the mid1990s, the critique of Democratic Socialism was the mainstream inthe Chinese academic circles. From the mid1990s on, the relationship between theCCP and the SDP was being renewed step by step, and maintained good posture in the21th Century. As a result, the influence of Democratic Socialism was expanding inChina, and a batch of Democratic Socialism’ suitors came into being of which manypeople even openly advocated that China should take the road of DemocraticSocialism on the eve of the17th CPC National Congress.The Western Social Democratic Thought caused significant influence on ModernChina. However, the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in1949declaredthe victory of the revolutionary road with Chinese characteristics (that is, thenew-democratic revolution road) which Guided by scientific socialism, and it also proved that the Social Democratic and any other doctrine or road cannot save the oldChina. The two important reasons for “Why Social Democracy can’t save ModernChina” are: the political rulers of Modern China are not willing to compromise withthe Chinese people which makes China lack of soil and environment where the SocialDemocracy takes root and grow up, the Social Democracy relies on some weakclasses of Modern China. Since the reform and opening-up, the influence of theDemocratic Socialism in Contemporary China arises. But the Democratic Socialism isnot suitable for the national conditions of China at all. Thus, we cannot accept theDemocratic Socialism in full. We should firmly oppose to going to the road ofDemocratic Socialism. At the same time, the Western Social Democratic Thought hasproduced certain positive effect on Modern and Contemporary China. Therefore, weshould actively learn from the successful experience of the Social Democracy, so as tobetter insist in and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.