Party: The Basic Values of the Democratic Socialist Party
Zhou Yuyun
June 2014
The author is deputy director of the Research Office of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee
Journal of Contemporary World
The values of a political party are the spiritual glue that brings its members together, and are also the political and cultural identity that distinguishes a party from other political parties. As a political party with a long history, the Socialist Party pays special attention to the refinement and elaboration of its own values. The Socialist Party argues that democratic socialism, as a social, political and economic model, is based on basic values such as “freedom, justice, solidarity and mutual assistance”. In the view of the Socialist Party, any economic system, whether it is capitalist or socialist, will degenerate into a system of privilege and exploitation if it is not constantly guarded by moral force. Therefore, basic values are needed to regulate, correct and guide the individual and collective behavior of members of society.
The Connotation of the Socialist Party’s Basic Values
The Socialist Party argues that the realization of socialism does not lie in its “historical inevitability” but in its “moral inevitability”. Therefore, the basic values of the Socialist Party are based on ethical and moral foundations, including freedom, justice, solidarity and mutual assistance. The “Frankfurt Declaration” adopted when the Socialist International was rebuilt in 1951 declared that the common goal of socialists is to fight for a system of social justice, good life, freedom and world peace. The purpose of socialists is to expand personal freedom on the basis of achieving economic development and social security, but at that time they had not yet been raised to the level of basic values.
The German Social Democratic Party was the first to advocate the theory of basic values. As a party that is good at theoretical thinking, it was the first to raise the issue of basic values in the democratic socialist movement.
In November 1959, the German Social Democratic Party adopted its first post-war program, the Godesberg Program, which clearly stated for the first time: “Freedom, justice, mutual assistance and the mutual obligations arising from common union are the basic values of socialist intentions.” [1] The Godesberg Program was revised twice, and the basic value theory was further elaborated. In the Economic and Political Outline for 1975-1985, the German Social Democratic Party proposed that democratic socialism is rooted in common basic values, which are freedom, justice and mutual assistance. The basic political and social requirements of democratic socialism are generated and developed from the decision to support the above basic values.
The introduction of the theory of basic values has had a profound impact not only on the German Social Democratic Party, but also on the Socialist International and its member parties. The Swedish Social Democratic Party, the Austrian Socialist Party and others have successively recognized the content of basic values. In 1986, the Socialist International also pointed out in the “Lima Mandate” that socialists should “realize the basic values of freedom, justice and solidarity through the process of democratization.”
In the “Declaration of Principles” issued by the Socialist International in Stockholm in June 1989, basic values were systematically elaborated in a separate section as the “principles” of the democratic socialist movement for the first time, pointing out that “democratic socialism is an international movement to achieve freedom, social justice and solidarity. Its goal is to win a peaceful world where these basic values can be promoted, individuals can live a meaningful life, their personality and talents can be fully developed, and human rights and civil rights are guaranteed in the basic structure of a democratic society.”
Freedom, justice (equality) and solidarity and mutual assistance are the basic values that have been universally recognized by socialist parties in various countries. Socialists have made rich and detailed expositions on freedom, justice, solidarity and mutual assistance.
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