Criticism of communist party rule

This article is about analysis and criticism of the actions and policies of states governed by communist parties, usually Marxist–Leninist or some national variation thereof, not communist philosophy or political theory. For criticism of communism as an ideology, see Criticism of Marxism. For criticism of socialism in general, see Criticism of socialism.
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The actions by governments of communist states (Bolshevik totalitarian states) have been subject to criticism across the political spectrum.[1] Communist party rule has been especially criticized by anti-communists and right-wing critics, but also by other socialists such as anarchists, democratic socialists, libertarian socialists, orthodox Marxists, and Trotskyist communists. Ruling communist parties have also been challenged by domestic dissent.[2] According to the critics, rule by communist parties has often led to totalitarianism, political repression, restrictions of human rights, poor economic performance, and cultural and artistic censorship.[1][3]

Several authors noted gaps between official policies of equality and economic justice and the reality of the emergence of a new class in communist countries which thrived at the expense of the remaining population. In Central and Eastern Europe, the works of dissidents Václav Havel and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gained international prominence, as did the works of disillusioned ex-communists such as Milovan Đilas, who condemned the new class or nomenklatura system that had emerged under communist party rule.[4][5][6] Major criticism also comes from the anti-Stalinist left and other socialists.[7][8][9][10] Its socio-economic nature has been much debated, varyingly being labelled a form of bureaucratic collectivism, state capitalism, state socialism, or a totally unique mode of production.[11][12][13][14]

Communist party rule has been criticized as authoritarian or totalitarian for suppressing and killing political dissidents and social classes (so-called "enemies of the people"), religious persecution, ethnic cleansing, forced collectivization, and use of forced labor in concentration camps. Communist party rule has also been accused of genocidal acts in Cambodia, China, Poland and Ukraine, although there is scholarly dispute regarding the Holodomor's classification as genocide.[15] Especially in the West, criticism of communist rule has also been grounded in criticism of socialism, by economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, who argued that the state ownership and planned economy characteristic of Soviet-style communist rule were responsible for economic stagnation and shortage economies, providing few incentives for individuals to improve productivity and engage in entrepreneurship.[16][17][18][19][20] Anti-Stalinist left and other left-wing critics see it as an example of state capitalism[21][22] and have referred to it as a "red fascism" contrary to left-wing politics.[23][24][25] Other leftists, including Marxist–Leninists, criticize it for its repressive state actions while recognizing certain advancements such as egalitarian achievements and modernization under such states.[26][27] Counter-criticism is diverse, including the view it presents a biased or exaggerated anti-communist narrative. Some academics propose a more nuanced analysis of communist party rule.[28][29]

Excess deaths under communist party rule have been discussed as part of a critical analysis of communist party rule. According to Klas-Göran Karlsson, discussion of the number of victims of communist party rule has been "extremely extensive and ideologically biased."[30] Any attempt to estimate a total number of killings under communist party rule depends greatly on definitions,[31] ranging from a low of 10–20 million to as high as 148 million.[32][33] The criticism of some of the estimates are mostly focused on three aspects, namely that (i) the estimates are based on sparse and incomplete data when significant errors are inevitable; (ii) the figures are skewed to higher possible values; and (iii) those dying at war and victims of civil wars, Holodomor and other famines under communist party rule should not be counted.[34][35][36][37][38][39] Others have argued that, while certain estimates may not be accurate, "quibbling about numbers is unseemly. What matters is that many, many people were killed by communist regimes."[29] Right-wing commentators argue that these excess deaths and killings are an indictment of communism,[40][41][42] while opponents of this view, including members of the political left, argue that these killings were aberrations caused by specific authoritarian regimes instead of communism, and point to mass deaths that they claim were caused by capitalism and anti-communism as a counterpoint to communist killings.[29][41][43]

  1. ^ a b "Criticisms of Communist Party Rule". Philosophybasics. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  2. ^ Pollack, Detlef; Wielgohs, Jan. "Dissent and Opposition in Communist Eastern Europe" (PDF). European University Viadrina. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  3. ^ Krieger, Joel (2001). "Communist Party States". The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (2 ed.). Oxford Reference. doi:10.1093/acref/9780195117394.001.0001. hdl:1721.1/141579. ISBN 9780195117394. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  4. ^ Đilas, Milovan (1983) [1957]. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System (paperback ed.). San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-665489-X.
  5. ^ Đilas, Milovan (1969). The Unperfect Society: Beyond the New Class. Translated by Cooke, Dorian. New York City: Harcourt, Brace & World. ISBN 0-15-693125-7.
  6. ^ Đilas, Milovan (1998). Fall of the New Class: A History of Communism's Self-Destruction (hardcover ed.). Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-43325-2.
  7. ^ Chomsky, Noam (Spring/Summer 1986). "The Soviet Union Versus Socialism." Our Generation. Retrieved 10 June 2020 – via Chomsky.info.
  8. ^ Howard, M. C.; King J. E. King (2001). "'State Capitalism' in the Soviet Union". History of Economics Review. 34 (1): 110–126. doi:10.1080/10370196.2001.11733360.
  9. ^ Wolff, Richard D. (27 June 2015). "Socialism Means Abolishing the Distinction Between Bosses and Employees" Archived 2018-03-11 at the Wayback Machine. Truthout. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  10. ^ Robinson, Nathan J. (28 October 2017). "How to Be a Socialist without Being an Apologist for the Atrocities of Communist Regimes". Current Affairs. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  11. ^ Andrai, Charles F. (1994). Comparative Political Systems: Policy Performance and Social Change. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. p. 140.
  12. ^ Sandle 1999, pp. 265–266.
  13. ^ Morgan, W. John (2001). "Marxism–Leninism: The Ideology of Twentieth-Century Communism". In Wright, James D. (ed.). International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 657–662.
  14. ^ Smith, S. A. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 126. ISBN 9780191667527. The 1936 Constitution described the Soviet Union for the first time as a 'socialist society', rhetorically fulfilling the aim of building socialism in one country, as Stalin had promised.
  15. ^ Sawicky, Nicholas D. (20 December 2013). The Holodomor: Genocide and National Identity (Education and Human Development Master's Theses). The College at Brockport: State University of New York. Retrieved 6 October 2020 – via Digital Commons. Scholars also disagree over what role the Soviet Union played in the tragedy. Some scholars point to Stalin as the mastermind behind the famine, due to his hatred of Ukrainians (Hosking, 1987). Others assert that Stalin did not actively cause the famine, but he knew about it and did nothing to stop it (Moore, 2012). Still other scholars argue that the famine was just an effect of the Soviet Union's push for rapid industrialization and a by-product of that was the destruction of the peasant way of life (Fischer, 1935). The final school of thought argues that the Holodomor was caused by factors beyond the control of the Soviet Union and Stalin took measures to reduce the effects of the famine on the Ukrainian people (Davies & Wheatcroft, 2006).
  16. ^ Von Mises, Ludwig (1990). Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (PDF). Mises Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  17. ^ Hayek, Friedrich (1935). "The Nature and History of the Problem"; "The Present State of the Debate". Collectivist Economic Planning. pp. 1–40, 201–243.
  18. ^ Durlauf, Steven N.; Blume, Lawrence E., ed. (1987). The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online. Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved 2 February 2013. doi:10.1057/9780230226203.1570.
  19. ^ Biddle, Jeff; Samuels, Warren; Davis, John (2006). A Companion to the History of Economic Thought, Wiley-Blackwell. p. 319. "What became known as the socialist calculation debate started when von Mises (1935 [1920]) launched a critique of socialism".
  20. ^ Levy, David M.; Peart, Sandra J. (2008). "Socialist calculation debate". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (Second ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333786765.
  21. ^ Cliff, Tony (1996). State Capitalism in Russia (PDF). Retrieved 6 October 2020 – via Marxists Internet Archive.
  22. ^ Alami, Ilias; Dixon, Adam D. (January 2020). "State Capitalism(s) Redux? Theories, Tensions, Controversies". Competition & Change. 24 (1): 70–94. doi:10.1177/1024529419881949. ISSN 1024-5294. S2CID 211422892.
  23. ^ Voline (1995). "Red Fascism". Itinéraire (13). Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Paris. Retrieved 6 October 2020 – via The Anarchist Library. First published in the July 1934 edition of Ce qu'il faut dire (Brussels).
  24. ^ Meyer, Gerald (Summer 2003). "Anarchism, Marxism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union". Science & Society. 67 (2): 218–221. doi:10.1521/siso.67.2.218.21187. ISSN 0036-8237. JSTOR 40404072.
  25. ^ Tamblyn, Nathan (April 2019). "The Common Ground of Law and Anarchism". Liverpool Law Review. 40 (1): 65–78. doi:10.1007/s10991-019-09223-1. hdl:10871/36939. ISSN 1572-8625. S2CID 155131683.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference Parenti 1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Milne, Seumas (16 February 2006). "Communism may be dead, but clearly not dead enough". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 April 2020. The dominant account gives no sense of how communist regimes renewed themselves after 1956 or why western leaders feared they might overtake the capitalist world well into the 1960s. For all its brutalities and failures, communism in the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and elsewhere delivered rapid industrialisation, mass education, job security and huge advances in social and gender equality.
  28. ^ Ghodsee, Kristen (Fall 2014). "A Tale of 'Two Totalitarianisms': The Crisis of Capitalism and the Historical Memory of Communism" (PDF). History of the Present: A Journal of Critical History. 4 (2): 115–142. doi:10.5406/historypresent.4.2.0115. JSTOR 10.5406/historypresent.4.2.0115.
  29. ^ a b c Ghodsee, Kristen; Sehon, Scott; Dresser, Sam, eds. (22 March 2018). "The merits of taking an anti-anti-communism stance". Aeon. Archived from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  30. ^ Karlsson, Klas-Göran; Schoenhals, Michael (2008). Crimes Against Humanity under Communist Regimes. Forum for Living History. ISBN 9789197748728.
  31. ^ Dallin, Alexander (2000). "Reviewed Work(s): The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by Stéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panné, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Margolin, Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer". Slavic Review. 59 (4): 882‒883. doi:10.2307/2697429. JSTOR 2697429.
  32. ^ Valentino 2005, pp. 75, 91, 275.
  33. ^ "Reevaluating China's Democide to 73,000,000". 24 November 2008.
  34. ^ Harff, Barbara (1996). "Death by Government by R. J. Rummel". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 27 (1): 117–119. doi:10.2307/206491. JSTOR 206491.
  35. ^ Kuromiya, Hiroaki (2001). "Review Article: Communism and Terror. Reviewed Work(s): The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, and Repression by Stephane Courtois; Reflections on a Ravaged Century by Robert Conquest". Journal of Contemporary History. 36 (1): 191–201. doi:10.1177/002200940103600110. JSTOR 261138. S2CID 49573923.
  36. ^ Paczkowski, Andrzej (2001). "The Storm Over the Black Book". The Wilson Quarterly. 25 (2): 28–34. JSTOR 40260182.
  37. ^ Weiner, Amir (2002). "Review. Reviewed Work: The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression by Stéphane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panné, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Margolin, Jonathan Murphy, Mark Kramer". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 32 (3): 450–452. doi:10.1162/002219502753364263. JSTOR 3656222. S2CID 142217169.
  38. ^ Dulić, Tomislav (2004). "Tito's Slaughterhouse: A Critical Analysis of Rummel's Work on Democide". Journal of Peace Research. 41 (1): 85–102. doi:10.1177/0022343304040051. JSTOR 4149657. S2CID 145120734.
  39. ^ Harff, Barbara (2017). "The Comparative Analysis of Mass Atrocities and Genocide" (PDF). In Gleditsch, N. P. (ed.). R.J. Rummel: An Assessment of His Many Contributions. SpringerBriefs on Pioneers in Science and Practice. Vol. 37. Cham: Springer. pp. 111–129. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-54463-2_12. ISBN 9783319544632.
  40. ^ Piereson, James (21 August 2018). "Socialism as a hate crime". newcriterion.com. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  41. ^ a b Engel-Di Mauro, Salvatore; et al. (4 May 2021). "Anti-Communism and the Hundreds of Millions of Victims of Capitalism". Capitalism Nature Socialism. 32 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1080/10455752.2021.1875603.
  42. ^ Satter, David (6 November 2017). "100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  43. ^ Bevins, Vincent (2020). The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World. PublicAffairs. p. 240. ISBN 978-1541742406. ... we do not live in a world directly constructed by Stalin's purges or mass starvation under Pol Pot. Those states are gone. Even Mao's Great Leap Forward was quickly abandoned and rejected by the Chinese Communist Party, though the party is still very much around. We do, however, live in a world built partly by US-backed Cold War violence. ... Washington's anticommunist crusade, with Indonesia as the apex of its murderous violence against civilians, deeply shaped the world we live in now ... .