New Course
신방침
The New Course was a line advanced by Leon Trotsky in late 1923 that criticized the bureaucratization of the Communist Party after the Revolution and the concentration of decision-making in the apparatus. Trotsky called for greater critical participation by the membership and more party democracy without abandoning the organizational principles of Bolshevism.
In depth
Formation and controversy
The resolution "On Party Building," adopted by the Politburo and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission on 5 December 1923, gave official form to the New Course as a proposed change in party structure and internal relations. Trotsky wrote his "New Course (Letter to Party Meetings)" on 8 December; after its publication in Pravda on 11 December, he expanded it with other articles into a pamphlet issued in January 1924.
Trotsky's central concern was that the party had split into an upper level that decided and a lower level that merely received decisions. He argued that the experience of members who joined after October, especially factory cells, had to enter the making of policy, and treated bureaucratism not simply as a remnant of wartime administration but as the transfer of administrative methods into the party during peacetime.
The New Course became a starting point for the Left Opposition in the 1923–1924 party struggle, but Trotsky's position was rejected at the Thirteenth Party Conference in January 1924. The concept refers less to abolishing the one-party system than to a dispute over the distribution of power within the party and the self-government of a revolutionary organization.
Sources
- Wikipedia (RU) 1923년 12월 트로츠키의 글과 12월 5일 당 건설 결의, 당내 민주화와 관료화 논쟁을 지원
- Marxists Internet Archive 트로츠키의 원문, 신방침을 당의 새 발전 단계와 관료주의에 대한 비판으로 설명
- wsws.org 1923년 12월 글들의 문헌적 맥락과 당내 민주주의·관료주의 비판을 지원