New Democracy

For different uses of the term, including political parties with the name "New Democracy", see New Democracy .

New Democracy or the New Democratic Revolution is a Maoist concept based on Mao Zedong's "Bloc of Four Social Classes" theory during post-revolutionary China which argues that democracy in China will take a decisively distinct path from either the liberal capitalist and/or parliamentary democratic systems in the western world, or Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe and similar states.

The New Democracy concept still aims to overthrow feudalism and/or achieve a country's national independence from colonialism, but it bypasses the rule of the capitalist class that Marx and Lenin predicted would usually follow such a struggle, claiming instead to seek to enter directly into socialism through a coalition of classes fighting the old ruling order. The coalition is subsumed under the leadership and guidance of the working class and its communist party, working with the communists irrespective of their competing ideologies, in order to achieve the more immediate goal of a "new democratic order" that the Chinese communists of course hoped would then lead to full-blown socialism and communism, in spite of the competing class interests of the social classes of the "bloc".

The bloc of classes reflecting the principles of New Democracy is symbolized most readily by the stars on the Flag of China, with the largest star to symbolize the...
Read More