Socialism of the 21st century

Socialism of the 21st century is a political term and a slogan coined by Heinz Dieterich in 1996. It was used by Hugo Chávez during a speech at the World Social Forum of 2005 and it has been publicised actively by Dieterich worldwide since 2000, especially in Latin America.^[1]

Bolivarian Process

Dieterich is considered the (informal) advisor of the Bolivarian development process which is executed by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. According to Dieterich, neither “industrial capitalism” nor “real socialism” have managed “to solve the urgent problems of humanity, like poverty, hunger, exploitation, economic oppression, sexism, racism, the destruction of natural resources, and the absence of a really participative democracy.” ^[2]

Organizations

The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) was founded as the premise for grouping such countries together.

Basic Institutions

To remedy these failures, Dieterich suggests the construction of four basic institutions within the new reality of post-capitalist civilization, namely:

1. Equivalence economy, which should be based on Marxian labour theory of value and which is democratically determined by those who directly create value, instead of market-economical principles;
2. Majority democracy, which makes use of plebiscites to decide upon important questions that concern the whole society;
3. Basic democracy, based on democratic state institutions as legitimate representatives of the common interests of the majority of citizens, with a suitable protection of minority rights; and
4. The critical and responsible subject, the rationally, ethically and aesthetically self-determined citizen.”^[2]

These institutions of the New Historical Project rest upon the fundamental pillars of participative democracy, regional cooperation (by forming "regional blocks of popular power") and worker rights.

According to Dieterich, the existing society should be replaced by a “qualitatively different system". “The program of the Socialism of the 21st Century is necessarily a revolutionary one.”^[2] This revolution, however, should be a gradual process, which does not employ violence and that is sensitive to the fact that the institutions we have now are the result of thousands of years of trial and error. Because of this, they cannot be changed from dusk till dawn, as the experiences of real socialism have shown us. According to Dieterich, human beings are not rats in a laboratory (Reference absent!). Every large scale social revolution that wants to be successful, has to be the result of well informed persuasion about the benefits of a project, rather than imposition through state force and repression. This revolution will result from participative democracy to secure power, education, scientific knowledge about society and international cooperation.

References