Is Communism Dead?
What is Communism:
"Communism has as its centerpiece the socialization of resources - the notion that the state must control society's land, labor, and capital to achieve substantial equality for all citizens. (Danziger, pg. 220)."
"Communism is both a political system and an economic one. Communist parties have absolute power over governance, and elections are singe-party affairs. The party controls the economic system as well, and private ownership is illegal, although the facet of communist rule has changed in some countries like China (Rosenberg, 2018)."
History
The history of communism encompasses a wide variety of ideologies and political movement sharing the core theoretical values of common ownership of wealth, economic enterprise and property. The basic principles of communism were articulated in the mid-1800's by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles, two German economic and political philosophers. But it wasn't until the Russian Revolution of 1917 that a communist nation, the Soviet Union was born. By the middle of the 20th century, it appeared that communism could supersede democracy as the dominant political and economic ideology.
Current
Currently we have five communist countries in the world. China (People's Republic of China), Cuba (Republic of Cuba), Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic), North Korea (DPRK, Democratic People's Republic of Korea), and Vietnam (Socialist Republic of Vietnam). While the world has just five communist countries, socialist countries are relatively common countries whose constitutions include statements about the protection and rule of the working class. Socialist states include Portugal, Sri Lanka, India, Guinea-Bissau, and Tanzania. Many of these nations have multiparty political systems, such as India, and several are liberalizing their economies, like Portugal.
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Question is Communism Dead or Alive?
Considering we currently still have five communist countries, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and beliefs. Communism or socialism is not dead at all. It comes in many shapes and sizes. From the one party ruled countries like China and Cuba (100% state dominated societies) to democratically elected coalition governments where liberals and/or socialists take seat in government. The big difference is that since the fall of the Soviet communism, the geo-political battleground changed from a struggle between two ideologies too one of control over strategic natural resources and media resources. If "made in China" is one of the most heard phrase in modern shopping, what is it trying to tell us. "We are only at the beginning of a period of major economic change and social turmoil (Priestland, 2017)."
References
Danziger, J. N. (2013), Understanding the political world: A Comparative Introduction to Political Science 11th Edition.
History of Communism. (n.d.).
Retrieved from Wikipedia website: History of communism
Priesland, D. (2017). What's left of communism.
Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/opinion/sunday/whats-left-of-communism.html
Rosenberg, M. (2018). A list of current communist countries in the world. Post-Soviet Communism Is on the Wane.
Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/communist-countries-overview-1435178
