Themes
New democracy and state-building
1939–1949 · From the theory of New Democracy to the people's democratic dictatorship — a systematic account of 'state-building'.
Background
This theme collects the writings on the nature of the state and the road of development — the most theoretically systematic part of the collection. The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party and On New Democracy give the systematic account of 'new democracy': in a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country the first step of the revolution is the new-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism, and its prospect is socialism; On Coalition Government, at the end of the War of Resistance, puts forward a concrete programme of founding the state covering military, economic, cultural and foreign affairs; On the People's Democratic Dictatorship, in 1949, summarizes the conception of the state system. The concern of these texts is how to lead an agricultural, divided, oppressed country toward independence, unity and industrialization. They are the core texts for understanding the blueprint of state-building in twentieth-century China, and they mark the transition of the collection's language from 'revolution' to 'founding a state' — once the military outcome grew clear, the centre of the argument moved from 'how to fight' to 'what kind of state to build'. The strength of this discourse is that it always keeps 'stages' clear: what is to be done now and what the vision is are never confused. From an intellectual-history angle the theme carries on Sun Yat-sen's legacy of the 'Three Principles of the People' while reinterpreting it as 'new democracy': on the one hand it admits the historical tasks of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic revolution were unfinished; on the other it makes explicit its leading force and future direction. This strategy of 'inheriting and rewriting' let the new regime claim continuity with the preceding revolutionary tradition in theory while also drawing a line against it. For researchers, these texts are the best sample for observing how the 'imagination of the state' in twentieth-century China moved from revolutionary discourse to the discourse of construction. New-Democratic Constitutional Government brings the conception of the state down to the form of government and the arrangement of rights, showing the theme does not stop at abstract direction but cares about the operable shape of institutions; Win the Masses in their Millions for the Anti-Japanese National United Front links the programme of founding the state to the practice of mobilization, suggesting that the blueprint itself is a tool for rallying support. Taken as a whole, the distinguishing feature of this group of writings is a self-awareness of their 'transitional' character: they never promise a final form, but always treat the present stage as one link toward a more distant goal. Such a theory of stages lets the theory answer the urgent task of founding the state without obscuring its judgement about the long-term prospect. It also shows that a conception of 'what the state should be' is inseparably bound to the real alignment of forces — who leads and on whom one relies.
Excerpts from the text
It belongs to the new type of revolution led by the proletariat with the aim, in the first stage, of establishing a new-democratic society and a state under the joint dictatorship of all the revolutionary classes.
— On New Democracy
Beyond all doubt, the urgent need is to unite representatives of all political parties and groups and of people without any party affiliation and establish a provisional democratic coalition government.
— On Coalition Government
All the experience the Chinese people have accumulated through several decades teaches us to enforce the people's democratic dictatorship, that is, to deprive the reactionaries of the right to speak and let the people alone have that right.
— On the People's Democratic Dictatorship
Modern relevance
The modern significance of this theme lies in its awareness of 'stages of development': distinguish clearly between the task at hand and the long-range goal, confuse neither, and do not neglect the feasible steps of the present in pursuit of the vision. This pragmatic judgement about historical stages is a methodological problem every long-term plan must face. Read it as a theoretical document of China's twentieth-century state transformation, attending to the internal logic of its argument rather than treating it as commentary on present institutions. Only by putting 'new democracy' back into its wartime and crisis background can one understand why it is a transitional, not a final, blueprint — this is the proper measure of archival reading. The texts also reveal a universal problem of state-building: how, on a backward and divided social foundation, to complete national integration quickly while reserving room for long-term development. The proposed 'joint dictatorship of all revolutionary classes' is one specific answer to that problem; one need not accept its concrete conclusions to read from it how a rising regime weighed 'order' against 'change'. The universality of that weighing is what carries these writings beyond a single country. For the present reader the most instructive feature is the way the texts handle the relation between 'goal and stage': they refuse to replace the present with the vision, and equally refuse to treat the present as the end point. This two-layered vision has methodological meaning for any society facing long-term transformation — it demands that planners answer at once 'where are we now' and 'where are we finally going'. In addition, the dialectical statement in On the People's Democratic Dictatorship of the relation between 'dictatorship' and 'democracy' can be read as one specific answer to the universal political problem of how majority rule is to be made compatible with the maintenance of order — the questions it touches have a generality across time and space.
From the theory of New Democracy to the people's democratic dictatorship — a systematic account of 'state-building'.