Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism—a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.
Communism
QUICK FACTS
KEY PEOPLE
Vladimir Lenin
Mao Zedong
Joseph Stalin
Nikita Khrushchev
Leon Trotsky
Ho Chi Minh
Josip Broz Tito
Lin Biao
Władysław Gomułka
Zhou Enlai
RELATED TOPICS
Political system
Marxism
Socialism
Ideology
Collectivization
National Communism
Eurocommunism
Democratic centralism
Primitive communism
Anarchist communism
DID YOU KNOW?
The first known use of the word "communism" was in 1840.
Many anticolonial nationalists in East Asia in the 1940s and Latin and South America starting in the late 1960s saw communism as a promising ideology.
Well-known communist writings are still read today; "The Communist Manifesto" written by Marx and Engels in 1848 was a best seller in Britain in 2015.
Like most writers of the 19th century, Marx tended to use the terms communism and socialism interchangeably. In his Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), however, Marx identified two phases of communism that would follow the predicted overthrow of capitalism: the first would be a transitional system in which the working class would control the government and economy yet still find it necessary to pay people according to how long, hard, or well they worked, and the second would be fully realized communism—a society without class divisions or government, in which the production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Marx’s followers, especially the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin, took up this distinction.
Other early visions of communism drew their inspiration from religion. The first Christians practiced a simple kind of communism—as described in Acts 4:32–37, for example—both as a form of solidarity and as a way of renouncing worldly possessions. Similar motives later inspired the formation of monastic orders in which monks took vows of poverty and promised to share their few worldly goods with each other and with the poor. The English humanist Sir Thomas More extended this monastic communism in Utopia (1516), which describes an imaginary society in which money is abolished and people share meals, houses, and other goods in common.
Answers & Comments
Answer:
Communism, political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production (e.g., mines, mills, and factories) and the natural resources of a society. Communism is thus a form of socialism—a higher and more advanced form, according to its advocates. Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been a matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists’ adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx.
Communism
QUICK FACTS
KEY PEOPLE
Vladimir Lenin
Mao Zedong
Joseph Stalin
Nikita Khrushchev
Leon Trotsky
Ho Chi Minh
Josip Broz Tito
Lin Biao
Władysław Gomułka
Zhou Enlai
RELATED TOPICS
Political system
Marxism
Socialism
Ideology
Collectivization
National Communism
Eurocommunism
Democratic centralism
Primitive communism
Anarchist communism
DID YOU KNOW?
The first known use of the word "communism" was in 1840.
Many anticolonial nationalists in East Asia in the 1940s and Latin and South America starting in the late 1960s saw communism as a promising ideology.
Well-known communist writings are still read today; "The Communist Manifesto" written by Marx and Engels in 1848 was a best seller in Britain in 2015.
Like most writers of the 19th century, Marx tended to use the terms communism and socialism interchangeably. In his Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), however, Marx identified two phases of communism that would follow the predicted overthrow of capitalism: the first would be a transitional system in which the working class would control the government and economy yet still find it necessary to pay people according to how long, hard, or well they worked, and the second would be fully realized communism—a society without class divisions or government, in which the production and distribution of goods would be based upon the principle “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Marx’s followers, especially the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin, took up this distinction.
Other early visions of communism drew their inspiration from religion. The first Christians practiced a simple kind of communism—as described in Acts 4:32–37, for example—both as a form of solidarity and as a way of renouncing worldly possessions. Similar motives later inspired the formation of monastic orders in which monks took vows of poverty and promised to share their few worldly goods with each other and with the poor. The English humanist Sir Thomas More extended this monastic communism in Utopia (1516), which describes an imaginary society in which money is abolished and people share meals, houses, and other goods in common.
source: Bratannica.com