Unit 3: Communist & Post-Communist Countries

Over the course of the past century, the advanced industrialized democracies (represented by Britain in APCOGO) have become the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. However, these countries have been widely criticized for the degree of economic inequality that exists among their citizens, as well as the big divide in wealth and power between them and the other countries of the world.   Communist countries counter that the industrialized democracies have created increasing inequality and base their governments on the belief that equality is undervalued in capitalist countries such as Britain and the United States.

During the 20th century two large countries declared themselves to be communist nations — the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Together they were home to a large share of the world's population and the economic and political influence of communism was Indisputable. Today the Soviet Union has collapsed, leaving in Its wake dozens of fledgling democracies, all struggling for their survival. Among major nations, only China remains under communist rule, although Cuba and North Korea are well-known communist regimes as well.

Communism has taken many forms since its birth in the mid-nineteenth century. The variations are so vast that they often appear to have little in common, although all claim to have roots in Marxism.

MARXISM 

The father of communism is generally acknowledged to be Karl Marx, who first wrote about his interpretation of history and vision for the future in The Communist Manifesto in 1848. He saw capitalism —or the free market — as an economic system that exploited workers and increased the gap between the rich and the poor. He believed that conditions in capitalist countries would eventually become come so bad that workers would join together in a revolution of the proletariat (workers) and overthrow the bourgeoisie who were owners of factories and other means of production. Marx envisioned a new world after the revolution, one in which social class would disappear because ownership of private property would be banned, According to Marx. communism encourages equality and cooperation, and without property to encourage greed and strife, governments would be unnecessary, and they would wither away.

MARXISM-LENINISM

Russia was the first country to base a political system on Marx's theory. The "revolution of the proletariat" occurred in 1917, but did not follow steps outlined by Karl Marx. Marx believed that the revolution would first take place in industrialized capitalist countries. Russia had only begun to industrialize by the late 20th century, and was far behind countries like Britain, Germany, and the United States. However, revolutionary leader V I. Lenin believed that the dictatorial tsar (russian ruler; literally caesar)  should be overthrown and that Russian peasants should be released from oppression. Lenin changed the nature of communism by asserting the importance of the vanguard of the revolution — a group of revolutionary leaders who could provoke the revolution in non-capitalist Russia. The government he established in 1917 was based on democratic centralism, or the "vanguard" who would lead the revolution since the people were incapable of providing leadership themselves. Democratic centralism provided for a hierarchical party structure in which leaders were elected from the party; a system known as nomenklatura . Discussion was permitted by party members until a decision was made, but "centralism" allowed no questioning of the decision after the fact. Lenin proceeded to direct industrialization and agricultural development from a centralized government. In addition, the limited economic ability of the new USSR would be strictly regulated. Moreover, capitalistic ventures were severely restricted in the Soviet Union.

The system that Lenin set up has been incredibly influential because all communist countries that followed based their systems on the Soviet model. Political power rests with the Communist Party a relatively small "vanguard" organization that by its very nature allows no competing ideologies to challenge it. The legitimacy of the state rests squarely on the party as the embodiment of communist ideology. Ironically, this feature of communist systems transformed Marxism, with all of its idealistic beliefs in equality for common citizens,

into authoritarianism.

Communist states are often associated with the use of force. but they also rely on co-optation. or allocation of power throughout various political, social, and economic institutions. Recruitment of elites takes place through nomenklatura, the process of filling influential jobs in the state, society or the economy with people approved and chosen by the Communist Party. Nomenklatura includes not only political jobs, but almost all top positions in other areas as well, such as university presidents, newspaper editors. and military officers. Party approval translates as party membership, the easiest way for an individual to get ahead is to join the party.

Despite the authoritarian nature of communist states, it is also true that the system does allow for a certain amount of social mobility (he opportunity for Individuals to change the social status over the course of their lifetimes).

MAOISM AND MARKET-BASED SOCIALISM

China's version of communism began shortly after Lenin's revolution in Russian, but China's government was not controlled by communists until 1949. Almost from the beginning, China’s communist leader was Mao Zedong, whose interpretation of Marxism was very different from that of the Russian Soviet leaders. Maoism shares Marx’s vision of equality and cooperation, but Mao believed very strongly in preserving China's peasant-based society. Although the government sometimes emphasized industrialization during Mao's long rule by and large Mao was interested in promoting a revolutionary fervor that strengthened agriculturally-based communities.

After Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping instituted market-based socialism, or as he called it “socialism with Chinese characteristics” which today allows for a significant infusion of capitalism into the system. China choose a relatively gradual and smooth infusion of capitalism controlled by the government, in contrast to the internal upheavals that broke the Soviet Union apart after Mikhail Gorbachev tried to resuscitate the economy during the late 1980s through Perestroika. Russia’s rocky road to capitalism continued during the first years of the new regime as Boris Yeltsin (Russia’s president of the new Russian Federation) tried to privatize the economy through “shock therapy.”

GENDER RELATIONS IN COMMUNIST REGIMES

Marxists often see traditional gender relations - with women in subservient roles to men - as resulting from the underlying inequality encouraged by capitalist society. Men exploit women through the family structure in much the same way that the bourgeoisie exploit the proletariat in the workplace. Communism envisions complete economic, social, and political equality between man and women. As we will see in Russia and China, this ideal was not followed in reality in any of the communist countries. However, it almost certainly increased opportunities for women, so that until the late 20th century, women in communist countries were more likely to work outside the home than women in capitalist countries.

COMMUNIST POLITICAL ECONOMY

Communist ideology led to political economies characterized by central planning, in which the ownership of private property the market mechanism were replaced with the allocation of resources by the state bureaucracy. According to the basic tenets of Marxism, neither principle - ownership of private property nor the market economy - encourages equitable distribution of wealth. Countries with communist economies have experienced these two problems:

• Logistical difficulties — Planning an entire economy is an extremely difficult task, The larger the economy, the more difficult the planning is and the less efficient in the implementation. In a market economy supply and demand interact spontaneously, and active management of an economy takes more work and energy.
• Lack of worker incentives — Capitalist countries often repeat this criticism of communist political economies. Workers have no fear of losing their jobs. and factories don’t worry about going out of business. so there are few incentives for producing good quality products. In the absence of competition and incentives, innovation and efficiency disappear, and as a result, communist economies generally fall behind market economies.

In the case of the USSR, these problems were insurmountable and they led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and eventually its Republics.

NEW ECONOMIC TIES

Since Russia no longer has official ties to communism and China has now integrated capitalism into its system. Just how important theoretical communism is to either country today is in question. New directions are indicated by both countries as they establish their roles the global marketplace. In 2001 a chief economist of Goldman Sachs first coined the term "BRIC" for the fast-growing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Goldman Sachs noted that the economies of the four countries are growing so fast that they might overtake the combined economies of the current richest countries of the world by 2050. In June 2009, the leaders of the BRIC countries held their first summit in Yekaterinburg. Russia, where they discussed common concerns and demanded more say in global policymaking. At the time of their meeting, the economies of Brazil, India, and China were recovering from the global monetary crisis of September but the Russian economy was still plagued by plunging oil prices. Since then they have met in various cities the BRIC countries.

South Africa sought BRIC membership beginning in 2009 and the process for formal admission began in 2010. South Africa was officially admitted as a BRIC nation on December 24, 2010 after being invited by China and the Other BRIC countries to join the group. altering the acronym to BRICS. South African President Jacob Zuma attended the BRICS summit in Sanya in April 2011 as a full member.

Both China and Russia today have authoritarian governments, though Russia (as we will see) setup democratic structures in the Constitution of 1993. Both have integrated capitalism into their economic systems. although they have taken very different paths to reach that end, and both have become important players in international markets. How these economic changes will impact their political systems is an unfolding drama. as both countries test the western assumption capitalism and democracy go hand in hand. So far, China and Russia appear to be setting their own rules, and it is far from clear that democratic principles will be a part of their future.

In the days that follow, we will examine in more detail the influence of communism on Russia and China. For Russia, has communism now been successfully replaced with capitalism? In China, has the system strayed so far from Marxism that it can hardly be seen as communism today?