Study Area III:
Socialist Thoughts and Movements in Developed Countries

  For some reason, we didn’t pay much attention to socialism in

developed countries, which is a pity to Chinese socialist construction

and the whole socialist

movement. As we all know,

socialism is a global political

and social movement in

essence. With the

development of globalization and the socialization of produce and

exchange, socialism cannot be limited to one region. To study the

socialist movement in developed countries is helpful for us to know

the great trend of the development of world politics and economy. It

is also necessary for us to consolidate and develop socialism with

Chinese characteristics.

   Europe is the cradle of Marxism. Since 1990s, parties whose belief

is socialism have come into power again in most Western European

countries. Our first feature is to focus on democratic socialism, new

politics, and social movement in Europe. In countries like America,

Canada and Australia, economy is as developed as, even better than

it in European countries to some degree. However, workers

movement in these countries is at low tide. To find the reason is our

second feature. The third feature is to find why South Korea,

Singapore and Malaysia didn’t choose socialism after World War II

as Lenin had predicted. Researchers are all open-minded and have

studied abroad. Prof. Liu Yu’an, the leading person, has been

studying social democracy with great concentration since the middle

of 1980s. His research on Northern Europe has aroused attention

from home and abroad. Dr. Huan Qingzhi, another leading person,

has made great progress on European Green Parties’ studies.