1. Communism used to be a very widespread political system (before 1991).  Now it is quite limited.

Continent        Pre 1990               Now

East Asia          China                    China (?)
                        Vietnam                Vietnam (?)
                        North Korea          North Korea
                        Laos                     Laos?
                        Cambodia

EurAsia            USSR
                        Mongolia
                        East Germany
                        Poland
                        Czechosloviakia
                        Hungary
                        Romania
                        Bulgaria
                        Albania
                        Yugoslavia

West Europe    France, Italy, Greece had vigorous Communist Parties

Africa                Angola
                          Mozambique
                          Guinea Bissau
                          Ethiopia

Latin America    Cuba                   Cuba

                          influence in
                            Chile
                            Nicaragua

2. Since it has declined so much, why include it in Foreign Governments and Politics?

 
a. Understanding why communism collapsed says a great deal about political dynamics.   How and why do powerful dictatorships collapse?

 George Orwell in 1984 predicts "The heel of the boot in your face" will last forever.

Aristotle observed that no tyranny lasted more than 90 years.

Domestic processes:

too much political control undermined political legitimacy

too much economic control undermined economic efficiency

nationalism remained a real force

international forces

  Did the USSR "loose the cold war" to US, President Reagan?

  The model of more successful countries

b. Post communist countries are still very much affected by their communist experience.

c. We can see how difficult it is to create a democratic, market system.

• Political instability and economic corruption are very real possibilities.
• Back-sliding is possible

B. Theory of Comunism

1. Karl Marx: Marxism

        History on railroad tracks, going from station to station (stage of history)
 
 

Primative Communism

Slave Society

Feudalism

Capitalism

Socialism

Communism

Principles:

• Societies progress as they move from station to station, towards communism.
• Progress is invitable and only in one direction, although the time to go from station to station and the time at each station is not fixed or certain.
• History is pushed by class conflict and contradictions at each stage.
• Differences between "socialism" and "communism":
• socialism:
• people are paid according to work
• state is needed to administer society
• communism:
• people do not need material incentives, are paid according to need
• society administers itself, the state withers away
• Note: Marx noted "Oriental Mode of Production"
• strong central state bureaucracy with control over economy (traditional China or India)

• History moves through voluntarism, i.e. people voluntarily make choices to push history forward.
• Communist Party is needed to push history forward
• Elitist, membership organization (apply to join), small
• Professional, full time work
• Secret
• Party will become the "vanguard of the proletariat."
• After the revolution, the party will provide leadership and control the government.  It will exercise "dictatorship of the proletariat."
• Because capitalism is international (through imperialism), the struggle to push history foward is international.
• Colonies are exploited to generate super profits to "bribe" the domestic working class.
• Colonies are the "soft underbelly" of world capitalism, and can overthrow imperialism and progress rapidly to socialism and communism.

 3. Goals of Communists

• If out of power
• push society forward towards next stage (generally socialism)
• peacefully (economism, Mensheviks) or by revolution (Bolsheviks)
• If in power
• Establish and conslidate socialism, move to communism
• Dictatorship of the (vanguard of the) proletariat
• Social Control (exercised by goverment, communist party) over economy

• How long does each stage last? years? decades? centuries?
• Can history go backwards?
• Can historical stages be skipped, go from feudalism directly to socialism?
• If socialism is built during feudalism in an environment of Asiatic Mode of Production, what do you have?