Chances for Democracy and A Third Path in Republican China?

In prior discussions of Chinese democracy, we read about how Chinese educators tried to introduce liberalism and democracy into China through popularizing education and journal/newspaper articles. Although many Chinese Communists finally bypassed the liberal/democratic route and rejected a society built around individual liberty, it was fairly mainstream culture, among many Chinese Nationalists (GMD) and early Communists, that a democratic state in control of many sectors of society and taking care of the well-being of the people was a very desirable form of state. Not only did many Chinese liberals argue that way (in lieu of a liberal individualistic society with free market economy), but Mao Zedong (Tse-tung), future leader of Communist China, bore a strong imprint of that argument. In his writings of the 1940s and even early 1950s, Mao showed the influence of a social democracy--his depiction of the Communist state, with its emphasis on the democracy of the people, and state exercising a benevolent role in society, reflected this influence. A quite strong argument regarding Republican China is that by the late 1920s, liberalism as a cause was lost in China. The Nationalist government tried to enforce a more traditional approach to culture, reflected  e.g. in the New Life Movement, and rituals to worship Confucius. In Edmund Fung's article on social democracy and China's modern transformation 1921-1949, Fung argues that liberalism was not a completely lost cause in Republican China. Rather, it was reflected in many writings, in the work of various political parties, including the agendas of the Nationalist and Communist parties, and the activities of the National Socialist Party (later the Democratic Socialist Party). The main reason for the popularity of social democracy had both to do with international politics after World War I and China's political and social situation. In Europe after WWI, there was a general disillusionment with democracy, and the ideas of progress and technological development because of the destructiveness of the war. Following extensive criticisms of democracy in Europe, many Chinese intellectuals expressed doubts about democracy and liberalism as an end in themselves without social improvement. The traditional Confucian regard for society and the social relevance of the scholar was now put in a new social context: the rise of socialism in the world and the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party (1921). In their reactions to Chinese Communism, many Western educated Chinese scholars adopted a more moderate interpretation of Communism/Socialism following a group of Marxists called "revisionists"  in Europe--who revised the radical Marxist theories that argued Communism could only be brought about by a radical overthrow of the existent capitalist regime. These scholars argued that socialism could be brought about through a peaceful combination of liberalism and democracy--by tilting the balance of the state from protecting the interest of the few-large landowners, factory owners, business owners, to that of the many--small producers, small businessmen, the proletariats, etc. The state would be relevant and should be strong, but it would protect the people. This would be a third path--an alternative both to rugged individualism and free market capitalism, and to Communism. Champions of this view included Liang Qichao, a former reformer who inspired a whole generation of young Chinese to change from the old ways, Junmai (Carson) Zhang, who sojourned briefly in Japan (Waseda University, Tokyo), and Germany (Berlin University), and many other intellectual leaders of China. Zhang was most prominent in this movement because of the political parties he organized. Although like the Green Party of Ralph Nader in the U.S., Carson Zhang never gained as much prominence in China to rival the influence of the Nationalists and Communists, but his vision represented a common basis of social understanding shared by such political personages as Mao Tse-tung and Sun Yatsen. A socialist streak ran through Sun's vision for China. In his "Three Principles of the People": nationalism, people's rights, and people's livelihood, the last one concerned directly the equity of land ownership. Land redistribution was a very important concern on Sun's mind and that was why this principle was often translated into English as "socialism." What led even foreign visitors to China such as Bertrand Russell to advise against direct democracy and free market economy in China was perhaps poverty and the dilapidated state structure in China. A democracy had to function with a healthy state that had a developed legal system, which was absent in republican China, which was ruled by warlords from the 1910s to 1920s. Concern with building a healthy and functioning government became the concern of many liberals, including Hu Shi, one of the Boxer Indemnity students who had studied under John Dewey, and later a professor of philosophy at Peking University, and ambassador to the US in the 1940s. For Hu, democracy first entailed good governance. Similarly, the absence of the "basics" of a society and state that a functioning democracy called for led many Chinese scholars to the Soviet model as a  functioning government that addressed many social ills. In view of the enormous social and political gap between China and developed countries, social democracy champions advocated a utilitarian or pragmatic approach to issues such as individual rights and private ownership. The state was to facilitate agricultural and industrial development, and provide compulsory education. People's rights were not absolute, nor their private ownership. People should have the right to work and own property, but not to the extent that their rights and ownership would hinder the greater, collective good. The popularity of socialism and a more interventionist state in post World War II Europe, followed by the election of the Labor Party's Clement Atlee as prime minister in Britain, encouraged the "third path" Chinese intellectuals like Zhang Junmai, who hoped his cross between democracy and socialism would solve the problems of social disparity while preventing the rise of absolute equality in China. The civil war, and the final triumph of the Chinese Communists, prevented the victory of the third party. But many elements of social democracy were retained in early Chinese Communist policies.