New Democracy

New Democracy was the political theory developed by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong. It holds that a semi-feudal society like 20th century China which did not undergo a bourgeois revolution must create a temporary alliance with progressive and anti-feudal classes in which a "joint-dictatorship" is exercised to carry out the tasks of a democratic revolution. Under the hegemony of the proletariat, power is also shared with the peasantry, petite-bourgeoisie, and progressive segments of the national bourgeoisie. After the success of New Democracy, a conventional dictatorship of the proletariat is developed.

Background

Vladimir Lenin spoke of the need for a "revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry" as far back as from before the 1905 revolution. In his work The Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution, Lenin said the following:

And such a victory will be precisely a dictatorship, i.e., it must inevitably rely on military force, on the arming of the masses, on an insurrection, and not on institutions of one kind or another, established in a “lawful” or “peaceful” way. It can be only a dictatorship, for the realisation of the changes which are urgently and absolutely indispensable for the proletariat and the peasantry will call forth the desperate resistance of the landlords, of the big bourgeoisie and of tsarism. Without a dictatorship it is impossible to break down that resistance and to repel the counter-revolutionary attempts. But of course it will be a democratic, not a socialist dictatorship. It will not be able (without a series of intermediary stages of revolutionary development) to affect the foundations of capitalism. At best it may bring about a radical redistribution of landed property in favour of the peasantry, establish consistent and full democracy including the formation of a republic, eradicate all the oppressive features of Asiatic bondage, not only in village but also in factory life, lay the foundation for a thorough improvement in the position of the workers and for a rise in their standard of living, and—last but not least—carry the revolutionary conflagration into Europe. Such a victory will by no means as yet transform our bourgeois revolution into a socialist revolution; the democratic revolution will not directly overstep the bounds of bourgeois social and economic relationships; nevertheless, the significance of such a victory for the future development of Russia and of the whole world will be immense. Nothing will raise the revolutionary energy of the world proletariat so much, nothing will shorten the path leading to its complete victory to such an extent, as this decisive victory of the revolution that has now started in Russia. [Emphasis added]

Criticism

New Democracy has been accused by critics of Mao as being class collaborationist in implementation.

Further reading

• On New Democracy (1940), by Mao Zedong. Available on the Marxists Internet Archive.

See also

• People's Democratic Dictatorship
• People's democracy