Communism

Not to be confused with Communalism or Communitarianism.
For other uses, see Communism (disambiguation).

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Communism (from Latin communis, 'common, universal')[1][2] is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement,[1] whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need.[3][4][5] A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes,[1] and ultimately money[6] and the state (or nation state).[7][8][9]

Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and a more authoritarian vanguardist or communist party-driven approach through the development of a socialist state, followed by the withering away of the state.[10] As one of the main ideologies on the political spectrum, communist parties and movements have been described as radical left or far-left.[11][12][note 1]

Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including anarchist communism, Marxist schools of thought, and religious communism, among others. Communism encompasses a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism, Leninism, and libertarian communism, as well as the political ideologies grouped around those. All of these different ideologies generally share the analysis that the current order of society stems from capitalism, its economic system, and mode of production, that in this system there are two major social classes, that the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through a social revolution.[20][note 2] The two classes are the proletariat, who make up the majority of the population within society and must sell their labor power to survive, and the bourgeoisie, a small minority that derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production.[22] According to this analysis, a communist revolution would put the working class in power,[23] and in turn establish common ownership of property, the primary element in the transformation of society towards a communist mode of production.[24][25][26]

Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 18th-century France, in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Criticism of the idea of private property in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century through such thinkers as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, Jean Meslier, Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, Henri de Saint-Simon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France.[27] During the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of François-Noël Babeuf, Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, and Sylvain Maréchal, all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to James H. Billington.[28][1] In the 20th century, several ostensibly Communist governments espousing Marxism–Leninism and its variants came into power,[29][note 3] first in the Soviet Union with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after World War II.[35] As one of the many types of socialism, communism became the dominant political tendency, along with social democracy, within the international socialist movement by the early 1920s.[36]

During most of the 20th century, around one-third of the world's population lived under Communist governments. These governments were characterized by one-party rule by a communist party, the rejection of private property and capitalism, state control of economic activity and mass media, restrictions on freedom of religion, and suppression of opposition and dissent. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, several previously Communist governments repudiated or abolished Communist rule altogether.[1][37][38] Afterwards, only a small number of nominally Communist governments remained, such as China,[39] Cuba, Laos, North Korea,[note 4] and Vietnam.[46] With the exception of North Korea, all of these states have started allowing more economic competition while maintaining one-party rule.[1] The decline of communism in the late 20th century has been attributed to the inherent inefficiencies of communist economies and the general trend of communist governments towards authoritarianism and bureaucracy.[1][46][47]

While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally Communist state led to communism's widespread association with the Soviet economic model, several scholars posit that in practice the model functioned as a form of state capitalism.[48][49] Public memory of 20th-century Communist states has been described as a battleground between anti anti-communism and anti-communism.[50] Many authors have written about mass killings under communist regimes and mortality rates,[note 5] such as excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin,[note 6] which remain controversial, polarized, and debated topics in academia, historiography, and politics when discussing communism and the legacy of Communist states.[68][69]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Ball, Terence; Dagger, Richard, eds. (2019) [1999]. "Communism". Encyclopædia Britannica (revised ed.). Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Communism". World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Chicago: World Book. 2008. p. 890. ISBN 978-0-7166-0108-1.
  3. ^ Ely, Richard T (1883). French and German socialism in modern times. New York: Harper & Brothers. pp. 35–36. OCLC 456632. All communists without exception propose that the people as a whole, or some particular division of the people, as a village or commune, should own all the means of production – land, houses, factories, railroads, canals, etc.; that production should be carried on in common; and that officers, selected in one way or another, should distribute among the inhabitants the fruits of their labor.
  4. ^ Bukharin, Nikolai; Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni (1922) [1920]. "Distribution in the communist system" (PDF). The ABC of Communism. Translated by Paul, Cedar; Paul, Eden. London, England: Communist Party of Great Britain. pp. 72–73, § 20. Retrieved 18 August 2021 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Steele (1992), p. 43: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption."
  6. ^ Engels, Friedrich (2005) [1847]. "Section 18: What will be the course of this revolution?". The Principles of Communism. Translated by Sweezy, Paul. Retrieved 18 August 2021 – via Marxists Internet Archive. Finally, when all capital, all production, all exchange have been brought together in the hands of the nation, private property will disappear of its own accord, money will become superfluous, and production will so expand and man so change that society will be able to slough off whatever of its old economic habits may remain.
  7. ^ Bukharin, Nikolai; Preobrazhensky, Yevgeni (1922) [1920]. "Administration in the communist system" (PDF). The ABC of Communism. Translated by Paul, Cedar; Paul, Eden. London, England: Communist Party of Great Britain. pp. 73–75, § 21. Retrieved 18 August 2021 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Kurian, George (2011). "Withering Away of the State". In Kurian, George (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Political Science. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. doi:10.4135/9781608712434. ISBN 978-1-933116-44-0. Retrieved 3 January 2016 – via SAGE Publishing.
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  10. ^ Kinna, Ruth (2012). Berry, Dave; Kinna, Ruth; Pinta, Saku; Prichard, Alex (eds.). Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1–34. ISBN 9781137284754.
  11. ^ March, Luke (2009). "Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe: From Marxism to the Mainstream?" (PDF). IPG. 1: 126–143 – via Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
  12. ^ George & Wilcox 1996, p. 95
    "The far left in America consists principally of people who believe in some form of Marxism-Leninism, i.e., some form of Communism. A small minority of extreme leftists adhere to "pure" Marxism or collectivist anarchism. Most far leftists scorn reforms (except as a short-term tactic), and instead aim for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system including the U.S. government."
  13. ^ "Left". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2022. ... communism is a more radical leftist ideology.
  14. ^ "Radical left". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 16 July 2022. Radical left is a term that refers collectively to people who hold left-wing political views that are considered extreme, such as supporting or working to establish communism, Marxism, Maoism, socialism, anarchism, or other forms of anticapitalism. The radical left is sometimes called the far left.
  15. ^ March, Luke (2009). "Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe: From Marxism to the Mainstream?" (PDF). IPG. 1: 126 – via Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The far left is becoming the principal challenge to mainstream social democratic parties, in large part because its main parties are no longer extreme, but present themselves as defending the values and policies that social democrats have allegedly abandoned.
  16. ^ March, Luke (2012). Radical Left Parties in Europe (E-book ed.). London: Routledge. p. 1724. ISBN 978-1-136-57897-7.
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  19. ^ March, Luke (September 2012). "Problems and Perspectives of Contemporary European Radical Left Parties: Chasing a Lost World or Still a World to Win?". International Critical Thought. 2 (3). London: Routledge: 314–339. doi:10.1080/21598282.2012.706777. ISSN 2159-8312. S2CID 154948426.
  20. ^ Engels, Friedrich; Marx, Karl (1969) [1848]. "Bourgeois and Proletarians". The Communist Manifesto. Marx/Engels Selected Works. Vol. 1. Translated by Moore, Samuel. Moscow: Progress Publishers. pp. 98–137. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  21. ^ Newman 2005; Morgan 2015.
  22. ^ Engels, Friedrich; Marx, Karl (1969) [1848]. "Bourgeois and Proletarians". The Communist Manifesto. Translated by Moore, Samuel. Moscow: Progress Publishers. Retrieved 1 March 2022 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Gasper, Phillip (2005). The Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document. Haymarket Books. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-931859-25-7. Marx and Engels never speculated on the detailed organization of a future socialist or communist society. The key task for them was building a movement to overthrow capitalism. If and when that movement was successful, it would be up to the members of the new society to decide democratically how it was to be organized, in the concrete historical circumstances in which they found themselves.
  24. ^ Steele (1992), pp. 44–45: "By 1888, the term 'socialism' was in general use among Marxists, who had dropped 'communism', now considered an old fashioned term meaning the same as 'socialism'. ... At the turn of the century, Marxists called themselves socialists. ... The definition of socialism and communism as successive stages was introduced into Marxist theory by Lenin in 1917 ..., the new distinction was helpful to Lenin in defending his party against the traditional Marxist criticism that Russia was too backward for a socialist revolution."
  25. ^ Gregory, Paul R.; Stuart, Robert C. (2003). Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First (7th ed.). South-Western College Pub. p. 118. ISBN 0-618-26181-8. Under socialism, each individual would be expected to contribute according to capability, and rewards would be distributed in proportion to that contribution. Subsequently, under communism, the basis of reward would be need.
  26. ^ Bockman, Johanna (2011). Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism. Stanford University Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-8047-7566-3. According to nineteenth-century socialist views, socialism would function without capitalist economic categories – such as money, prices, interest, profits and rent – and thus would function according to laws other than those described by current economic science. While some socialists recognized the need for money and prices at least during the transition from capitalism to socialism, socialists more commonly believed that the socialist economy would soon administratively mobilize the economy in physical units without the use of prices or money.
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  30. ^ "IV. Glossary". Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington. Retrieved 13 August 2021. ... communism (noun) ... 2. The economic and political system instituted in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. Also, the economic and political system of several Soviet allies, such as China and Cuba. (Writers often capitalize Communism when they use the word in this sense.) These Communist economic systems often did not achieve the ideals of communist theory. For example, although many forms of property were owned by the government in the USSR and China, neither the work nor the products were shared in a manner that would be considered equitable by many communist or Marxist theorists.
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  68. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ghodsee 2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  69. ^ Cite error: The named reference Neumayer 2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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