Burmese Road to Socialism

   The ideology of Burma's ruling party, the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), during the Revolutionary Council (1962-1974) and Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma (1974-1988) periods. It is embodied in two documents, "The Burmese Road to Socialism" published by the Revolutionary Council on April 30, 1962, and The System of Correlation of Man and His Environment: the Philosophy of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, published in January 1963.

   "The Burmese Road to Socialism" was a relatively short statement of the alleged inadequacies of parliamentary democracy and the new regime's commitment to establishing "socialist democracy" and a just social order. The System of Correlation was a longer and more ambitious attempt to synthesize Buddhist, Marxist, and non-Marxist socialist ideas. Although the latter employed much of the terminology of Marxism-Leninism, it rejected "vulgar materialism" and asserted the importance of such "psychical principles" as morality and self-reflection in the building of an ideal socialist society. Eschewing dogmatism, it admitted the need to constantly reevaluate and amend the state's revolutionary ideology. These two documents owed much to the socialist beliefs of Burma's leaders during the struggle for independence from colonial rule. Though they made room for traditional Buddhist values within a modernist, socialist context, they had little appeal among intellectuals or the general public during the BSPP period.