communism: communist and former communist regimes
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Communism: Communist and Former Communist Regimes. Presentation Outline. Marxism Leninism Stalinism Maoism The Crisis of Communism. 1) Marxism. The political and economic theory of communism was developed by the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the mid 1840s. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Communism: Communist and Former Communist
Regimes
1) Marxism2) Leninism3) Stalinism4) Maoism5) The Crisis of Communism
Presentation Outline
1) Marxism The political and economic theory of communism was
developed by the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the mid 1840s.
Marx believed that workers (the proletariat) were being exploited by the capitalists (bourgeoisie)
In the mid 19th century workers were made to work long hours in horrible conditions and paid very little wages- Marx wanted to replace this system
Marx advocated a proletarian revolution where the workers would overthrow the capitalist state and create a worker’s dictatorship- he predicted this would happen in industrialized Western Europe not Russia
In Marx’s communist state:
One Party State- Communist Worker’s Party
Command Economy: The state would control prices and distribution- all citizens would receive an equal share of goods and there would be no private property or social classes
Economic and Social Equality
2) Leninism It was in Russia where the first Communist
Revolution occurred in 1917
Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian Tsar and established the Soviet Union
Leninism differs from Marxism Workers did not play a major role in the
Russian Revolution since there were not many organized worker’s movements or labor unions in Russia
Lenin’s Revolution was carried out by a professional group of largely middle-class Communist revolutionaries
Leninism Lenin introduced the concept of
democratic centralism : Party members would be able to criticize policy and make suggestions but once a decision was made, all had to follow and obey – feature of many Communist regimes
In practice, democratic centralism was not very democratic and did not work as Lenin had planned
3) Stalinism After Lenin’s death, there was a power
struggle- Joseph Stalin assumed complete control in 1927 and created the first totalitarian state
Stalin used the mass media to control the population and mobilize citizens for the Party’s goals
Stalinism Collectivization: abolition of private farms,
forcing peasants to move on to large common farms where they would work for the state
Heavy industry: using massive numbers of peasants to build railways, make steel, mine coal with the goal of rapid industrialization
Gulags: those who did not comply, obey would be sent to labor camps in Siberia
Stalin’s Cult of Personality Since rational-legal and traditional
legitimacy were low, Stalin used charismatic legitimacy to solidify his rule
Stalin’s photos and statues were found on every street in every major Soviet village and city
School children were made to worship Stalin
The Communist Party State created under Stalin The Politburo was formally created: top
officials who make decisions- feature of most Communist regimes
The position of the General Secretary: leader of the Communist Party and head of state
Nomenklatura: all Communist Party members had to be approved by the Party elite- the only way to be promoted to high level positions was to follow directions and be in the General Secretary’s “good books”
4) Maoism The second major Communist Revolution
occurred in China
Unlike in Russia, it was the peasants who carried out the Communist Revolution in China
Mao Zedong mobilized the peasants on the Long March (1934) and later to fight against the Japanese forces and Kuomintang nationalists
Maoism Mao continued the practices of Stalin,
introducing collectivization, promoting heavy industry, and controlling the masses, and developing his own cult of personality
Left: Mao leading peasants on the Long March (1934)
Right: Mao surrounded by peasant students during the Cultural Revolution (1966)
5) The Crisis of Communism After the Cultural Revolution and the death
of Mao in 1976, China was in severe economic trouble- years of economic mismanagement led a new leader to rethink traditional Marxism-Leninism and follow a different path
Deng Xiaoping Beginning in 1978 Deng introduced a number of
economic reforms to boost China’s economy : 1) creation of Special Economic Zones in Xiamen, Shenzhen.. 2) encouragement of foreign investment 3) allowing private enterprise to operateThese reforms were pragmatic but were
completely opposed to classic Marxism-Leninsm
Deng’s pragmatism Other Communist states such as Vietnam
have followed Deng’s model
Economic reforms but without major political reforms
Political and Economic reforms too much for the Soviet Union In 1989 Communist General Secretary Mikhail
Gorbachev introduced political reforms (glasnost: democratization) and economic reforms (perestroika: privatization)
Hard-line Communists attempted a coup to replace Gorbachev
Meanwhile many former Soviet states such as Latvia, Lithuania had declared independence
Both the Party and the Soviet Economy were in chaos, and the regime collapsed in 1991
Collapse of the Soviet Union
The collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe- The fall of the Berlin Wall
Why has Communism not been successful? Arms race with US and Western states cost
the Soviet Economy billions
Information Age: it’s increasingly more difficult for authoritarian regimes to restrict their citizens’ access to the internet and other media sources
Globalization: increasing pressure to fit in to the world trading system
Communist states have low traditional and rational-legal legitimacy and often must resort to coercion at some point to maintain power- Examples: Stalin’s Gulags
1956 Hungarian protest
against Soviet Communism
1968 Czech demonstration
against Soviet Union 1989 Tienanmen
Square student demonstrations in
Beijing
Communism in 2012 The only “true Marxist” Communist states
remaining are Cuba and North Korea
Both are totalitarian states, but are isolated politically and economically from the international community