Maoism, also known as Mao Zedong Thought, is a political ideology that emerged from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong. Developed from the 1950s until the death of Mao in 1976, it was widely applied as the guiding political and military ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and as theory guiding revolutionary movements around the world.
Maoism's core tenets include continuous revolution, mass line, people's war, new democracy, and cultural revolution. Continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat addresses the perceived danger of a society reverting to capitalism. The mass line is a method of leadership that seeks to derive correct policies by interpreting the needs and ideas of the masses. People's war involves mobilizing the surrounding population against an enemy, and new democracy refers to Mao's idea of a multi-class, anti-imperialist, and anti-feudal coalition. The cultural revolution is a proactive effort to purge remnants of the old culture and promote proletarian culture.
Maoism was first developed to address the specific socio-political conditions of China, a largely agrarian society with a huge peasantry and small proletariat. Mao argued that in such a society, the peasantry could be the main force for revolution, contrary to the orthodox Marxist view that the industrial working class was the revolutionary vanguard. This led to the development of the concept of "people's war," which involved mobilizing the peasantry and the countryside to surround and eventually seize the cities.
Maoism's influence extended beyond China, inspiring revolutionary movements in countries like Nepal, Peru, and the Philippines. It also had a significant impact on Western leftist thought, particularly among student movements in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the ideology has also been criticized for its association with the authoritarian practices and human rights abuses during Mao's rule, including the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in millions of deaths.
After Mao's death, his successors moved away from his ideology, initiating economic reforms that led to a more market-oriented economy, although the CPC still officially regards Maoism as a fundamental source of its ideology. Today, Maoism is a significant ideological current in many communist parties around the world, but its influence varies widely from country to country.
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