The Development of Socialism in the Past 100 Years: Dialectical Thinking of the French Revolution and the Chinese Revolution from the Perspective of Socialism
Abstract
This essay examines the development of socialism over the century between the 1848 French Revolution and the Chinese Revolution. Although socialism did not emerge late in history, its most rapid development occurred over the hundred years following 1848. During this period, socialism underwent theoretical refinement under Marxism, witnessed the founding of the first socialist state, and participated in the people’s first experience of governance — developments that have exerted profound influence on the present and on probable future trajectories. During the 1848 French Revolution, socialism was not systematic, and socialism was not in the mainstream. There had not yet been any previous successful socialist reforms and revolutions. In China, on the other hand, Mao Zedong and other socialist leaders implemented changes in socialism, which contributed to the victory of the Chinese Socialist Revolution. This paper aims to compare the two revolutions and identify the changes of socialism that could be deduced from these two revolutions.
References
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