Communism

Introduction
 A political and economic ideology that seeks to create a classless society
 All property and resources are owned collectively and the means of
production are controlled by the community as a whole, rather than by
individuals or corporations
 The state is responsible for planning and directing economic activity
What is the goal?
 Creating an equal distribution of wealth and resources among all
member of society
 The needs of the community are prioritized over individual interests
 Achieve through the implementation of policies
 Examples:
 Abolition of Private Property
 As collective ownership implies, private ownership of means
of production is prohibited. In a purely communist state,
individual citizens are allowed to own nothing except the
necessities of life. The operation of privately owned
businesses is similarly prohibited
 Democratic centralism
 he official organizing and decision‐making principle of
Communist Parties, democratic centralism is a practice in
which political decisions, while reached by a nominally
democratic voting process, are binding on all members of
the party—effectively all citizens. As conceived by Lenin,
democratic centralism allows party members to participate
in political discussion and state opinions but compels them
to follow the Communist Party “line” once a decision has
been made
 Centrally planned economy
 Also known as a command economy, a centrally planned
economy is an economic system in which a single central
authority, typically the government in communist states,
makes all decisions regarding the manufacturing and the
distribution of products. Centrally planned economies are
different from free-market economies, such as those in
capitalist countries, in which such decisions are made by
businesses and consumers according to the factors of
supply and demand
  Elimination of income inequality
 In theory, by compensating each individual according to
their need, gaps in income are eliminated. By abolishing
revenue, interest income, profit, income inequality, and
socioeconomic class friction is eliminated, and the
distribution of wealth is accomplished on a just and fair
basis
 Repression
 In keeping with the principle of democratic centralism,
political opposition and economic freedom are prohibited
or repressed. Other basic individual rights and freedoms
may also be repressed. Historically, communist states, such
as the Soviet Union, were characterized by government
control of most aspects of life. “Correct thinking” in
adherence with the party line was encouraged by coercive,
often threatening propaganda produced by stare owned
and controlled medi
 Collective ownership of the means of production
 All means of production such as factories, farms, land,
mines, and transportation, and communication systems are
owned and controlled by the state

How did it exist?

 A response to the inequalities and exploitation of the industrial capitalist
system
 Example of states
 Soviet Union
 China
 Cuba
 North Korea
Types of communism
 Anarcho-communism
 Marxist school of thoughts
 Religious communism
Why communism failed?
 Citizens have no incentive to work for a profit
 “ideal” citizens are expected to selflessly devote themselves
exclusively to societal causes without regard to their welfare
  absence of free legal markets, workers had little incentive to
either be productive or to focus on making goods that might be
useful to consumers
 workers tried to do as little work as possible on their official
government-assigned jobs, devoting their real effort to more
profitable black-market activity
 Inefficient
 overly complex centralized planning system required the
collection and analysis of enormous amounts of detailed
economic data


Links
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-communism-1779968
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/communism/