1. Communism: Communism is defined as the 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 and the natural resources of a society. This form of government is important because it is backed by the idea of pure equality and is known for being the highest, most advanced form of socialism. Communism fueled the leaders of the Russian Revolution, such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Leon Trotsky. When Lenin was called into power after Nicholas II’s abdication, he immediately introduced Communism as Russia’s new form of government.
Karl Marx’s class theory lies upon the premise that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." He meant by this that ever since the inception of modern human society, people have been always divided into classes which are in conflict with each other due to class interests. An argument against class interests is that they are not given ab initio, they arise out of exposure of people occupying different social positions in varying social contexts. Karl Marx and Engels divided the masses into three broad classes, the proletariats, the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie.
Andre Abi Haidar PSPA 210 INTRODUCTION It is always difficult to write about and discuss Karl Marx, or more importantly the applications of Marx’s theories, due to the fact that he inspired and gave rise to many movements and revolutionaries, not all of which follow his theories to the point. Although Marx tends to be equated with Communism, it might not seem righteous to blame him for whatever shortcomings occurred when his theories were put to the test; Marx passed away well before the revolution in Russia, and he played no role in the emergence of the totalitarian regime at the time. When discussing Marx, however, Vladimir Lenin is one of the biggest highlights when it comes to studying the outcomes of Marx’s theories.
Meanwhile, the theory of Communism was theoretically developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, with the writing of “The Communist Manifesto” (Heywood, Politics 41). Communism is a system in which all economics and politics are synthesized into one classless state which is most commonly associated with common ownership and people 's leadership by a political party. Although both ideologies coincide in a few aspects when in practice, Communism and Fascism feature different approaches to property and society. Similarities between Fascism and Communism First, under both despotic systems, the state controls the production system, industry, and trade.
Karl Marx was born May 5th 1818 in Germany. The economic ideas of Karl Marx were specifically that he did not believe in people having great ideas to change the economy but rather that all people needed was to be able to live a decent life, meaning that they had food to eat and a home. For Karl Marx the economic system had to be equal values, and therefore eradicating classes. Therefore arises Communism, which is the defined by the Chambers Concise Dictionary (2009) as “A political ideology advocating a classless society, the abolition of private ownership, and collective ownership by the people of all sources of wealth and production.” The ideas of Karl Marx were adopted in many countries across the globe for example the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Russia) that existed from 1922 to 1991 when the idea of socialism and communism failed and
Communism builds on the idea that everyone is the same and should earn the same amount of money regardless of their profession. The most important with communism is that there should not be any class distinctions. China, Laos, Cuba and Vietnam
The three main ideas from the Communist Manifesto The Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had little to no influence when it was first published in 1848 for the Communist League. However, soon after Marx and Engel’s other writings on socialism became published it grew in popularity, and was considered a standard text of the time (Brians, 2006). With Marx’s radical ideas, and Engels’ thorough writing, they were able to convey how they were individual of the other socialists of the time and elaborate on their idea socialism and how it would inevitably be achieved. The three main ideas from The Communist Manifesto are class conflict, ephemeral capitalism, and inevitable revolution.
What if there were no social classes and everyone is equal? What if we had unlimited free trade between nations? What if the famous people that we idolized today were all part of a certain political party? All of these ideas, plus many more, are the ideas presented in the Communist Party USA, and the Communist party in general.
Marx saw capital and liberal democracies as the fundamental reasons for the low standards of living and the low social conditions of workers. Karl Marx in particular is especially concerned with the political assumptions behind these two ideologies. According to him, these two types of government should be replaced by communism, since communism would provide a more equal and socially just society. Although this statement may seem unusual, since we tend to associate communism with Stalin and China, the type of communism implemented in these countries is different from the communism that Marx and Engels envisaged in their Communist Manifesto. Marx and Engels’ vision of communism is based on the principle of equality among the people and freedom
Communism has been among the most polarising and divisive ideologies of the modern era, the fundamental foundations on which some of the most powerful leaders of the 20th century would build their empires. Political and societal ideologies such as democracy were very much organically occurring in nature, and to some extent, communism could be seen in a similar light. However, where Communism differs, is the thorough documentation of the formation of the fundamental principles of such a prominent ideology. During the mid 19th century, The Communist League, an international association of workers, commissioned Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to develop a text to accurately express and represent the ideological beliefs and agenda of the party.
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and economist in the 18th century. He is known for his book the Communist Manifesto that was published in 1848. Marx believed that a revolution of the working classes would over throw the capitalist order and creates a classless society. The Industrial Revolutions led to the proletarianization; his partner Friedrich Engels explained why the changes created by the proletarianization of the worker would develop into a huge problem for industrial societies. I do believe that Karl Marx’s vision of communism in the Communist Manifesto could re-emerge as a popular and workable philosophy of social, economic, and political organization.
Eventually, the whole world would be communist, and all the working classes would join to work as one. The perfect communist society would have
Marx begins The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) with the representation of communism as a ‘spectre’ suggesting the ideology as scary and unpleasant; a common belief in 19th century Europe (Marx and Engels 1848, pp. 473). Marx begins with this statement to emphasise how wrongfully extreme this view is and throughout the text he addresses the main fears and critiques of communism and shows how in fact communism is the most logical and rational way forward in modern society. One of the key fears of communism was the abolition of existing property relations; that being private property. Marx counteracts this fear stating that throughout history different property relations have been abolished “the French Revolution, for example abolished
Marxism and feminism are two sides of a coin. Encarta reference library defines Marxism as “a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in western societies”. Feminism is defined as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with efforts to change it. Marxism is an economic and social system.
Before being able to understand the communist theory that holds forth the promise ofradical social and economic egalitarianism, the definition of communism is needed. According toRichard Pipes, the word communism refers to “three related but distinct phenomena: an ideal, aprogram, and a regime set up to realize the ideal” (IX). The ideal is the “most extreme form” offull social equality. It calls for dissolving ownership of property. Ancient Greece was the firstcountry to recognize private property in land and treat it as a commodity, therefore, they were thefirst ones to encounter social inequality from ownership (3).
