Communism

Communism

A political and economic ideology based on communal ownership and the absence of class. Communism, which can be though of as capitalism's opposite, says that in a capitalist society, the working class (the proletariat) is exploited by the ruling class (the bourgeoisie).

While based on a Utopian ideal of equality and abundance, as expressed by the popular slogan, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," communism in practice has only existed under authoritarian government and has been the source of millions of human rights violations and deaths.

One of the fundamental problems with communism is the knowledge problem, which describes how, without a price system, central planners cannot accurately determine what goods and services should be produced or in what quantities. Useless surpluses and devastating shortages are the result. Communism is often considered to be a twentieth century political experiment that officially failed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Empire.


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  • Communism — • In its more general signification communism refers to any social system in which all property, or at least all productive property, is owned by the group, or community, instead of by individuals Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006.… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • COMMUNISM — COMMUNISM, the international revolutionary Marxist movement that evolved under lenin s leadership from the Bolshevik faction (created in 1903 in the Russian Social Democratic Party) to become the ruling party of Russia after the October… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Communism —    Communism is a theory and system of social and political organization that negates the capitalist profit based system of private ownership and argues for a communist society in which the means of production are communally owned. Largely shaped …   Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914

  • Communism — Com‧mun‧ism [ˈkɒmjnɪzm ǁ ˈkɑː ] noun [uncountable] ECONOMICS a political system in which, in principle, the government or the workers control the production of food and goods, and there are no different social classes Communist adjective : •… …   Financial and business terms

  • Communism — Com mu*nism, n. [F. communisme, fr. commun common.] A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life; specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of inequalities in the possession of property, as by distributing all wealth equally …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • communism — A system of social organization in which goods are held in common. Dictionary from West s Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. communism A system of social organization in which goods are held in common …   Law dictionary

  • Communism —    Communism as well as anarchism, socialism, and other variants of the left has had a long tradition in South America, closely connected with the rise of trade unions. The traditional left in Chile, dominated by the Partido Comunista (PC,… …   Historical Dictionary of the “Dirty Wars”

  • communism — social system based on collective ownership, 1843, from Fr. communisme (c.1840) from commun (O.Fr. comun; see COMMON (Cf. common)) + isme. Originally a theory of society; as name of a political system, 1850, a translation of Ger. Kommunismus… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Communism — UK / US or Communism UK [ˈkɒmjʊˌnɪz(ə)m] / US [ˈkɑmjəˌnɪzəm] noun [uncountable] * a political and economic system in which individual people cannot own property or industries and in which people of all social classes are treated equally …   English dictionary

  • communism — UK / US or Communism UK [ˈkɒmjʊˌnɪz(ə)m] / US [ˈkɑmjəˌnɪzəm] noun [uncountable] * a political and economic system in which individual people cannot own property or industries and in which people of all social classes are treated equally …   English dictionary

  • communism — [n] socialist government Bolshevism, collectivism, Leninism, Marxism, rule of the proletariat, socialism, state ownership, totalitarianism; concept 301 Ant. capitalism, democracy …   New thesaurus

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