New Democratic Society Rethink

The theory of a new democratic society is one of the most creative parts of Mao Zedong thought. The spirit of this theory is to found a sovereign state after the Chinese people win the new democratic revolution, which is neither capitalism nor socialism. As we all know, China was a backward country on both economy and culture, and it was impossible for the Chinese people to set up a socialist society at that time. It is this theory that solved the dilemma. During the War of Resistance against Japan, the theory of a new democratic society was nearly formed after the publication of two articles by Mao Zedong, Chinese Revolution and CPC and On New Democracy. The development of this theory reached its peak at the Seventh Congress of CPC. The spirit of The Common Programme which was established and adopted by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held on Sept. 1949 was the reflection of this theory as guiding principle to found the new government. From Oct. 1949 to Sept. 1952, the new democratic theory was put into practice throughout the country. However, with the brewage and implementation of the general line of transition period after Sept. 1952, the theory of a new democratic society was given up step by step, so its application was interrupted too early!The theory of a new democratic society was dropped due to various complicated reasons. To some extent it is historically unavoidable; however, it also reflects flaws in the theory itself and faults in people's knowledge and understanding. We have drawn a serious lesson from the interruption of the theory. First of all, we realize everything that should be done during revolutionary and constructive periods must be based on our basically national conditions; and dogmatic interpretation of Marxism obviously leads to failure. Now, we have absorbed the quintessence and practically historic lessons of the theory of a new democratic society, which is not for bringing back history and returning to new democratic society, but for the further understanding of the primary stage of socialism. Only under such circumstances, can we overstep both the theory itself and its practice. The theory of the primary stage of socialism is the theoretical fruit of this kind of surpass.