The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu ILinebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
History
The Political Doctrines of Sun Yat-sen: An Exposition of the San Min Chu I
Linebarger, Paul Myron Anthony
Sun, Yat-sen, 1866-1925. San min zhu yi
Superficially, there is a certain resemblance between the ideology of the
_San Min Chu I_ and that of Fascism. The resemblances may be found in the
emphasis on the nation, the rejection of the class war and of Marxism, the
upholding of tradition, and the inclusion of a doctrine of intellectual
inequality. But Sun Yat-sen seeks to reconcile all this with democracy in
a form even more republican than that of the United States. The scheme of
_min ch’üan_, with its election, recall, initiative and referendum, and
with its definite demands of intellectual freedom, is in contradiction to
the teachings of Fascism. His condemnation of Caesarism is unequivocal:
“Therefore, if the Chinese Revolution has not until now been crowned with
success, it is because the ambitions for the throne have not been
completely rooted out nor suppressed altogether.”(189) With these
fundamental and irreconcilable distinctions, it is hard to find any
possibility of agreement between the _San Min Chu I_ and the Fascist
ideologies, although the transitional program of the _San Min Chu I_—in
its advocacy of provisional party dictatorship, etc.—has something in
common with Fascism as well as with Communism as applied in the Soviet
Union.
A recent well-received work on modern political thought describes a
category of Western thinkers whose ideas are much in accord with those
contained in the _min shêng_ ideology.(190) Professor Francis W. Coker of
Yale, after reviewing the leading types of socialist and liberal thought,
describes a group who might be called “empirical collectivists.” The men
to whom he applies this term reject socialist doctrines of economic
determinism, labor-created value, and class war. They oppose, on the other
hand, the making of a fetish of private ownership, and recognize that the
vast mass of ordinary men in modern society do not always receive their
just share of the produce of industry. They offer no single panacea for
all economic troubles, and lay down no absolute and unchallengeable dogma
concerning the rightness or wrongness of public or private ownership.(191)
Professor Coker outlines their general point of view by examining their
ideas with reference to several conspicuous economic problems of the
present day: public ownership; labor legislation; regulation of prices;
taxation; and land policies.(192)
According to Coker, the empirical collectivist is not willing to forgo the
profit motive except where necessary. He is anxious to see a great part of
the ruthlessness of private competition eliminated, and capital generally
subjected to a regulation which will prevent its use as an instrument of
harm to the community as a whole. While not committed to public ownership
of large enterprises as a matter of theory, he has little objection to the
governmental operation of those which could, as a matter of practical
expediency, be managed by the state on a nonprofit basis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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