Communist state

In the technical terminology of political science, a communist state is defined as a system of government in which a state operates under a one political party system and claims to adhere to an ideology that is based on Marxism-Leninism. In these states the distinctions between state and party become blurred and there is usually heavy state control of the economy. This contrasts with the standard system of government in multi-party systems, in which the governing elites, though they emerge through political parties, govern through constitutional not party structures and operate far less control over the state and economy.

The concept of Communist state reflects underlying beliefs in Marxism-Leninism that the state is the party, the party is the state and the state/party has a right to control society in every aspect, whether social, cultural or economic.

The requirement that a communist state adhere to Marxism-Leninism excludes anti-Marxist one party states such as Nazi Germany or authoritarian regimes such as 1960s Taiwan, and the requirement that it be a one party state excludes those with ruling Marxist-Leninist parties operating in a multiparty framework such as the government of the Indian state of Kerala. Communist states which have existed during the 20th century include the Soviet Union, (and its satellites Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovaka, Romania and Mongolia), The People's Republic of China, Albania, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Viet Nam and North Korea. For brief periods communist regimes existed in Afganistan, Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique and in other third world countries. The Soviet Union, its satellites including Mongolia, and Romania, Albania and Yugoslavia abandoned Communism in the early 1990s. The People's Republic of China has significantly modified its system and now significantly deviates from the general pattern. Cuba and Viet Nam remain communist states, but differ somewhat from the general pattern. North Korea remains a traditional totalitarian communist state.

Communist states do not use that name to describe themselves. Within Marxist theory, world communism is the final phase of history at which time the state would have withered away and therefore the notion of a communist state is an oxymoron. Current states are either in the capitalist or socialist phase of history, and the role of the Communist Party is to pull a nation toward the communist phase of history.

Furthermore, many Marxists and Marxist-Leninists argue that most communist states do not actually adhere to Marxism-Leninism but rather to a perversion of it that is heavily influenced by Stalinism. This critique of communist states is particularly strong among social democrats and some critical theorists who hold that Marxism is correct as a social and historical theory, but that it can be implemented within a multiparty democracy. In addition, Trotskyists argue that the bureaucratic and repressive nature of communist states differs from Lenin's vision of the socialist state.

Some political scientists have argued that there are deep similarities between communist states and fascist ones and that both are examples of totalitarian states. One controversial doctrine that was popular in the 1980s was the Kirkpatrick doctrine which argued that communist states were inherently totalitarian while right-wing dictatorships which the United States supported were authoritarian.

The reliance on Marxism-Leninism as the basis for government has a number of implications. First of all, the party is seen as the "vanguard of the people" and therefore usually has the power to control the state, and non-state party officials generally hold extreme power. In the Soviet Union for example, the General Secretary of the Communist Party did not necessarily hold a state office like president or prime minister to effectively control the system of government. Instead party members answerable to or controlled by the party held these posts, often as honorific posts as a reward for their long years of service to the party. On other occasions, having governed as General Secretary, the party leader might assume a state office in addition. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev initially did not hold the presidency of the Soviet Union, that office being given as an honour to a former Soviet Foreign Minister.

Also, Marxism-Leninism sees restrictions on state power to be an unnecessary interference in the goal of pulling the society toward Communism. Within most Communist states there are no restrictions in theory and few restrictions in practice on the power of the state, resulting in state structures which are either totalitarian or authoritarian. In addition, within a Communist state, the validity of Marxism-Leninism is generally not seen as a topic which is open for legitimate debate, and hence those that question the validity of the ideology are often labelled counterrevolutionary or an enemy of the people.

The degree of this party-state relationship fluctuates both within a state and between different communist systems. In modern China, it has been firmly established that the party is subordinate to the state and the state has the power to regulate the party, to the point of excluding the party from areas such as Hong Kong. This and the receding of the Chinese state from the economy has caused some political scientists to question the applicability of the term communist to the Chinese governing elite, and thus whether the term communist state remains an accurate description of the Chinese governmental system.

However, Marxism-Leninism constitutionally remains the basis of the Chinese state and the Communist Party retains extensive influence over the state. Furthermore, although the Marxism-Leninism has been reinterpreted to allow extensive debate on some economic and political issues, the validity of Marxism-Leninism is still not subject to open debate. As a result, the term communist state is used by many, though not all, political scientists to describe China's current system of government.

For a complete discussion, see Politics of China.

General Characteristics of the Communist State

The history of communist states since 1917 onward to today is varied and complex , but it is possible to make some valid generalizations which apply to most examples: a communist state is characterized by a command economy, sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such as the collectivization of the land in the Soviet Union during the 1930s or the Great Leap Forward in China during the 1950s, grinding poverty, famine, a bloated bureaucracy, diversion of resources into military assets while the consumer sector is starved, a general loss of morale by the general population, attempts to escape the country, and instability marked by periodic rebellions which are brutally repressed. A communist state is characterized by the sharp division of the population into two castes, party members and the rest of the population. Only a small group, the politbureau, typically consisting of less than ten people, which may be dominated by one person, within the party holds any real power or have access to accurate information. A large secret police apparatus closely monitors the population. Concentration camps and other facilities are used to incarcerate those opponents which are not liquidated.

Communist states have sometimes leaped ahead of their contempary capitalistic states, offering guaranteed employment and heath care and generous social and cultural programs, often adminstered by labor organizations. Universal education programs has been one strong point as has the generous provision of universal health care. Central economic planning has in certain instances produced dramatic advances in selected areas, for example, rapid development of heavy industry during the 1930s in the Soviet Union and later in their space program. Another example is the development of the pharmaceutical industry in Cuba. Early advances in the status of women are also notable, especially in Islamic areas of the Soviet Union.

There have been two major communist states, The Soviet Union and its satellites and the People's Republic of China. Minor states include Albania, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Viet Nam and North Korea. The nature of each example of the communist state differs widely both between countries and within each individual state. Policies which incorporate the policies and techniques of the orthodox Stalinist state of the 1930s are characteristically more totalitarian, impoverished, militaristic, and static as can be seen in the examples of North Korea and Albania. Attempts to incorporate democratic principles as in the case of the Soviet Union under Gorbachev, socialist principles as in Yugoslavia,or capitalistic techniques as in China result in some mitigation of the negative features of the communist state but sometimes result in dynamic situations which may undermine the control of the party over the state or even lead to its collapse.

A communist state typically arises during a time of general international unrest as a result of a communist revolution lead by a national communist party. Such a party may have operated illegally for a period prior to the revolution and have developed a disciplined and effective structure and a cadre of competent committed leaders marked by both idealism and great skill at organizing successfully among the disaffected classes of the preceeding state, generally workers, but, especially in the case of China, peasants. Following a successful revolution a switch in orientation must be made from seizing power to building a new society.

The application of orthodox communist doctrine to development of a country and building of socialist institutions has historically proven to be inefficient and problematical. Over time, faced with practical difficulties members of a communist government gradually lose faith in their system and eventually a communist state may collapse even with considerable public support among the general population simply because it is seen by its leadership to not work.