OSW

SIGNATURE WORK
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2022

The Maoist Model: Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in Theory and Practice

Name

Corinne Southern

Major

Global China Studies, Chinese History

Class

2022

About

Hi! I'm from New York, where I live with my family (and my dog). My major is Global China Studies with a focus in History.

Signature Work Project Overview

This three-part essay expounds on the uniqueness of the central guiding ideology of the People’s Republic of China: Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Part One narrates the origin and tumultuous transition of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics from 1949 to the present, all while drawing on a mix of constitutional legislation and established scholarship to develop an original two-part contradiction theory that scrutinizes the ideology’s singularity. Part Two takes from the eccentric aspects explained in Part One and analyzes how Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is applied to contemporary China’s diplomatic behavior, expanding on events in the globalizing world milieu significantly impacted by the ideology’s presence. Lastly, Part Three focuses on the controversy surrounding Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in its sustainability against the foretold consequence of liberal democracy: The “End of History”. In this piece, there is one overarching argument: That the inconsistent nature of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics befits it as a guiding ideology for the People’s Republic of China in the short run, but that its idiosyncrasy finds difficulty in its application abroad.

Signature Work Presentation Video