Chen Duxiu’ View On Transformation Of Democracy

Chen Duxiu was a great statesman and thinker in Modern Chinese history, he was an advocate for the New Culture Movement, the commander-in-chief of the May Fourth Movement and one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. His democratic thoughts had a profound impact on both the Enlightenment Movement in modern China and on the proletarian revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party. He spent most part of his life exploring the best path to realize China’s democracy, prosperity and civilization. During this process, his democratic thoughts got formulated and corrected as the proletariat revolution of the20th century was developing.This democratic thought is the most significant aspect in his thought system.This thesis is composed of six parts. Introduction states the background,meaning and context as well as the progress of research on Chen Duxiu’s view of democracy at home and abroad.The second part makes an overall summary of influence on Chen Duxiu’s view of democracy on the background of western bourgeois regime and modern Chinese progress.The third part mainly combs the transformation of Chen Duxiu’s view of democracy from an academic perspective. The development of his democratic thoughts had gone through three stages in succession, from the bourgeois ideas on democracy, through the Soviet ideas on democracy to the mass democracy. The main focus of the second part is to summarize the transformation context in which the three stages took place.The core of Chen Duxiu’s early view of democracy is to promote the values of the inner spirit of democracy and also to criticize autocratic systems. After accepting Marxism as the guideline of thought and action, he wished to imitate Soviet’s example to create the view of proletarian democracy. In his old age, Chen Duxiu reflected and analyzed his democratic connotations, the difference between bourgeois democracy and proletariat democracy, and also the dictatorship of the proletariat system in the Soviet union,trying to find out which one left valuable resources for future generations.The fourth part expounds the experiences and reflections of Chen Duxiu’s view of democracy in different periods. Chen Duxiu praised highly bourgeois democracy, but was not that reasonable in thinking and had utilitarianism in his thoughts. Turning to Marxism, he showed ambivalence to the working class and farmers. In his old age he went through certain painful experiences which made him realize that he needed to improve his thoughts and opinions. In spite of the precious opinions he left for China’s construction there were still lots of regrets.The fifth part is about the application of Chen Duxiu’s transformational thoughts on democracy to contemporary Chinese democracy construction. It will be good reference point for today’s socialist democracy in China.The conclusion mainly combs and summarizes the context of this thesis, saying that Chen Duxiu’s thinking about democracy was a turning point in the pursuit of Chinese democracy after the New Culture Movement, and that his reflections about democracy illuminated new approaches, which had guiding value for China’s current construction.