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The term communism as a general economic term refers to any system in which property is shared by a community or owned in common. Thus the early Christians were said to practice a form of "primitive communism".

In Marxist theory, communism (lower case) is the final historical stage of society after capitalism has been overthrown and socialism withers away. This stage is variously seen as possible in a single nation or as requiring world hegemony of socialism as a pre-condition.

Communism (upper case) is the form of goverment in countries such as the Soviet Union and China the which applied Marx's ideas in politics, economics and ideology at the national level. These countries attempted to put into practice Marx's socialist philosophy by seizing power, overthrowing capitalism, and establishing a socialist economy. In Communist countries, the means of production are owned "collectively", that is, by the government on behalf of the people. (See collective ownership.)

Communism in Goverment

The dominant form of communism today is based on Marxism and sometimes called Marxism-Leninism, a theory of history in terms of class relations based on a political and economic philosophy derived from the teachings of Karl Marx. Various revolutionaries in the twentieth century have contributed to Marxist theory, especially Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Mao Zedong. In the twentieth century, a number of countries attempted to put Marx's ideas into practice, especially in the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China; at various times they have had to allow or even encourage certain forms of private-property.

Communism claims that capitalist systems exist through the

exploitation of one class by another and argues that this

system is destined to be replaced by a more classless socialist

system. However, critics have often claimed that as practiced in nations such as the former Soviet Union it created a new division of power (see nomenklatura).

The term is also used to refer to historical instances of totalitarian socialism (as distinct from democratic socialism). Regimes

described as communistic have, according to most Western observers,

generally been despotic and extremely abusive of human rights. Examples

are the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and Cuba.

In Marxist theory, communism is the final stage of social

development, coming after socialism. Marx specified that the workers would rise up to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism, but he did not explain how socialism would transform into capitalism, which anti-communists consider a serious theoretical flaw.

In theory, prior to this final stage, the state holds the property on behalf of its citizens.

In practice, communist ideology is widely regarded as failing to live up to its stated ideals, with members and especially high-ranking officials constituting a new privileged class (see Nomenklatura).

The term "communism" and ideology has a history that predates Marx, however, closely associated with (socialist) anarchism.

According to Marxist theory, the state will eventually wither away because the class divisions that underlie the existence of the state will have disappeared.

Prior to this final stage, however, state ownership is supposed to exist during a what is ostensibly a transitional period that Marxist theory describes as socialist.

No Marxist government actually claimed to have instituted a communist society; instead, the official doctrines of these regimes held that their governments were only transitional socialist regimes.

There are various kinds of communism or socialism; some kinds of communism

are varieties of ideology, while others are terms for practices or

styles of governance. Marxism holds--among other things--that human

history has had and will have a developmental structure, alternating between

slow development of technology/economy (and the according

philosophy/religion) and a rapidly changing short period of

technology/economy.

The short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, a brief revolutionary government after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War, was an early attempt at instituting a socialist regime, and Marx wrote approvingly of it. Bolshevism and Menchevism were also two early forms of communism-in-practice, advocated by Russian (mainly ex-patriate) communists in the late 19th and early 20th century; the Mencheviks favored

peaceful change, while Bolsheviks called for, and eventually organised, a revolution, putting power in the hands of the soviets of workers and peasants.

Leninism is the name given to Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin's

system of thought, which emphasises a top-down party structure known as democratic centralism, and the need to spread the revolution to other countries, and to exclude any compromise with the bourgeoisie.

Lenin's rule

gave way to Joseph Stalin's and Stalin's style of communist dictatorship

is known as Stalinism; Stalin's government was violently repressive of

individual liberties and of political dissidents and featured more [[five-year

plans]] as well as massive industrialization, under the un-Marxist pretext of constructing "socialism in one country". Leon Trotsky opposed the doctrine of "socialism in one country", and criticized Stalin's regime as being a "bureacratically deformed" worker's state. Followers of Trotsky are known as Trotskyists.

The practices of Mao Tse Tung are known as Maoism.

See also:

• Socialism

• Post-Communism

• Soviet Union

• Karl Marx

• Vladimir Lenin

• Joseph Stalin

• Leon Trotsky

Opposing view: classical liberalism.

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