1939年年底，毛澤東在寫作《中國革命和中國共產黨》這本小冊時，寫下了這樣一段話：「……現時中國的資產階級民主主義的革命……我們稱這種革命為新民主主義的革命。……它在經濟上是把帝國主義者和漢奸反動派的大資本大企業收歸國家經營，把地主階級的土地分配給農民所有，同時保存一般的私人資本主義的企業，並不廢除富農經濟。......中國的社會必須經過這個革命，才能進一步發展到社會主義的社會去，否則是不可能的。」 而稍早在1935年12月，毛澤東在〈論反對日本帝國主義的策略〉一文中則又說：「在將來，民主主義的革命必然要轉變為社會主義的革命。任何轉變，應以是否具備了轉變的條件為標準，時間會要相當地長。不到具備了政治上經濟上一切應有的條件之時，不到轉變對於全國最大多數人民有利而不是不利之時，不應當輕易談轉變。」 毛澤東這些關於「新民主主義」的想法，在1940年所寫的〈新民主主義論〉中，有了更細部的描述，並於中華人民共和國建國前夕，具體落實為具憲法地位的《共同綱領》。《共同綱領》第一條明白宣稱：「中華人民共和國為新民主主義即人民民主主義的國家。」 然而這一個毛澤東原先認為持續時間會「相當地長」的新民主主義階段，卻在建國之後短短的六、七年時間裡壽終正寢。1956年工商業社會主義改造完成，以及農村合作化的快速進展，在在宣布中華人民共和國正大步邁入社會主義，新民主主義至此形同終結。 中國共產黨為什麼到50年代中期便決定放棄新民主主義，而非建國初期包括毛澤東、劉少奇、周恩來等中共領導人信誓旦旦保證的十到十五年時間？本文主旨，在於為這個問題提出一個政治經濟的綜合解釋。

　　　　　From 1949 to the mid-1950s, according to the provisional constitution of the People’s Republic of China—the so-called “Common Program”（共同綱領）, this new Republic “is a state of the New Democracy, or the People’s Democracy.” The essence of the New Democracy, a theory invented by Mao Zedong, basically manifested itself in the policies regarding classes. The New Democracy stipulated that the national bourgeoisie（民族資產階級）and the rich peasants（富農）were officially recognized and protected by the communist government. In the early stage of the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) adopted the New Democracy theory in order to ease tensions between the different classes nationwide. By uniting with the national bourgeoisie and rich peasants, the CCP could fully devoted itself to struggling with the remaining Kuomintang forces and stabilizing the economic turmoil after the civil war. However, the precise implementation of the New Democracy depended upon the intentions of the top leaders of the CCP. As a result, its significance inevitably became ambiguous. Before 1953, in the process of dealing with severe inflation and fighting against corruption (the “three anti-” and the “five anti-” campaigns), the CCP dealt a deep blow against the urban bourgeoisie. At the same time, however, in order to boost the economy and reduce the unemployment rate, the CCP had to pacify the bourgeoisie to maintain their enterprises. Things changed after 1953. After Mao proposed the General Line for the Transition Period（過渡時期總路線）and criticized the pragmatic high-ranking officials headed by Zhou Enlai in the early half of 1953 for compromising with the bourgeoisie, the CCP changed its attitude toward the New Democracy. New policies designed to realize socialism were submitted, such as the abolishment of free grain markets and the acceleration of the socialist transformation of private industries and enterprises. By examining the turning point in Communist attitudes toward the bourgeoisie, this article offers a new interpretation of the CCP's policy-making process as seen in the final abandonment of the New Democracy.