Advantages

Communism has a centrally planned economy. It can quickly mobilize economic resources on a large scale. It
is able to execute massive projects and create industrial power.

Communism can move so effectively because it overrides individual self-interest. It subjugates the welfare of
the general population to achieve imperative social goals.

Communist command economies can wholly transform societies to conform to the planner's vision. Examples
include Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and Castro's Cuba. Russia's command economy built up the military
might to defeat the Nazis. It then quickly rebuilt the economy after World War II.

Disadvantages

The most significant disadvantage of communism stems from its elimination of the free market. The

laws of supply and demand don't set prices, the government does. Planners lose the valuable

feedback these prices provide about what the people want. They can't get up-to-date information

about consumers' needs. As a result, there is often a surplus of one thing and shortages of others.

To compensate, citizens create a black market to trade the things the planners don't provide. This

destroys the trust in Marx's pure communism. People no longer feel the government can give "to

each according to his needs."

Example

Communist countries are China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. They aren't pure

communism but are transitioning from socialism. That's where the state owns the components

of supply. According to Marx, that is a necessary midway point between capitalism and the ideal

communist economy. Modern communist societies rely on a mixed economy.

China. In October 1949, Mao Tse Tung established the Chinese Communist party. In the late

1970s, China began moving toward a mixed economy. It phased-out collective farms and allowed

private businesses. But it still strictly follows a five-year economic plan. The government's policies

favor state-owned enterprises in sectors vital to its goals. In 2010, China became the world's largest

exporter. In 2016, it became the world's largest economy.

Cuba. In April 1960, Fidel Castro proclaimed the Partido Communista de Cuba to be the ruling party.

The Soviet Union gave economic support to the impoverished country. In return, Cuba supported it

patron in the Cold War against its neighbor, the United States. After the fall of the USSR, Cuba

suffered. In April 2011, it began allowing economic reforms. Cubans can now buy appliances, cell

phones, real estate, and cars. More than 400,000 Cubans have created their own businesses. For

example, farmers can now sell goods to hotels.

Laos. In 1949, the nation won independence from France. In 1986, it began decentralizing

control and encouraging private businesses. It's created tax incentives to encourage foreign direct

investment. It wants to expand its economy beyond exporting its natural resources.

North Korea. In1953, its allies China and Russia helped create it to end the Korean War. The country

followed strict central planning, with communal farming. It suffered famine and poor living conditions

in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2002, it allowed semi-private markets to sell some goods.

Vietnam. In 1945, communist leader Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnamindependent from France. The

French, backed by the United States, seized southern Vietnam. Ho, backed by China, took the

northern part. In 1954, the French agreed to divide Vietnam at the 17th parallel. But in 1964, Ho led

Viet Cong soldiers to reunite the country. In 1975, the communists were successful. In

1986, Vietnam began transitioning towards a more market-based economy. It still needs to reform

state-owned enterprises, reduce red tape, and increase financial sector transparency.

Difference Between Communism, Socialism, Capitalism, and Fascism

Communism is most similar to socialism. In both, the people own the factors of production. The most
significant difference is that output is distributed according to need in communism, and according to ability
under socialism. Communism is most different from capitalism, where private individuals are the owners. It is
similar to fascism in that both use central plans. But fascists allow individuals to retain factors of production.
Many countries turned to fascism to ward off communism.

Attribute Communism Socialism Capitalism Fascism

Factors of production are
Everyone Everyone Individuals Individuals
owned by
Factors of production are Usefulness to Usefulness to
Profit Nation building
valued for people people
Allocation decided by Central plan Central plan Law of demand and supply Central plan
From each according to Ability Ability Market decides Value to the
 Attribute Communism Socialism Capitalism Fascism
his nation
Income, wealth and
To each according to his Need Contribution
borrowing ability

Communism is an economic system where the collective owns all property. Most importantly, this includes
the factors of production. The four factors of production are labor, entrepreneurship, capital goods, and natural
resources.

Karl Marx developed the theory of communism. He said it was, "From each according to his ability, to each
according to his need." No longer would capitalistic owners siphon off all the profits.

Instead, the proceeds would go to all the workers.

"From each according to his ability" meant people would work at what they loved and did well. They would be
happy to contribute these skills to support the community. The economy would prosper because they would
work harder than in capitalism.

"To each according to his need" means the community would take care of those who couldn't work. It would
distribute goods and services to everyone as they required them. Those who were able to work would be
motivated by enlightened self-interest.

Ten Characteristics of Communism in Theory

In the Communist Manifesto, Marx outlined the following 10 points:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies especially for agriculture.

1. The combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries. The gradual abolition of the distinction
between town and country. This will be achieved by a more equable distribution of population over the
country.
2. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor. The combination of
education with industrial production.

1. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state. It would own a national bank with state capital and an
exclusive monopoly.
2. The state would control communication and transportation.
3. The state factories and instruments of production. It would cultivate wastelands and improve the soil.
This would follow a common plan.

The manifesto mentions state ownership in its last three points. That makes even this pure vision of
communism sound like socialism. But Marx argued that state ownership is a valid stage in the transition to
communism.

In a true communist economy, the community makes decisions. In most communist countries, the government
makes those decisions on their behalf. This system is called a command economy. The leaders create a plan
that outlines their choices. It's executed with laws, regulations, and directives.
The goal of the plan is to give to "each according to his need." Communist countries have free health care,
education, and other services. The plan also seeks to increase the nation's economic growth. It secures
national defense and maintains infrastructure.

The state owns businesses on behalf of the workers. In effect, the government owns a monopoly. The
government rewards company managers for meeting the targets detailed in the plan.

In communism, central planners replace the forces of competition and the laws of supply and demand that
operate in a market economy. They also replace the customs that guide a traditional economy.
Mayroong iba't ibang uri ng komunismo. Ito ay kinabibilangan ng Leninismo,
Stalinismo, at Maoismo.
1. Komunismo – Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include
Marxism, anarchism, and the political ideologies grouped around both. The primary element which
will enable this transformation, according to analysis, is the social ownership of the means of
production. Likewise, some communists defend both theory and practice, while others argue that
historical practice diverged from communist principles to a greater or lesser degree, according to
Richard Pipes, the idea of a classless, egalitarian society first emerged in Ancient Greece. At one
time or another, various small communist communities existed, in the medieval Christian church, for
example, some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property.
Communist thought has also traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas
More. In his treatise Utopia, More portrayed a society based on ownership of property. In the 17th
century, communist thought surfaced again in England, criticism of the idea of private property
continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, through such thinkers as Jean Jacques
Rousseau in France. Later, following the upheaval of the French Revolution, communism emerged as
a political doctrine, in the early 19th century, Various social reformers founded communities based on
common ownership. But unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced the emphasis
with a rational. Notable among them were Robert Owen, who founded New Harmony in Indiana, in its
modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the
Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for the misery of the new class of
urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics
were Marx and his associate Friedrich Engels, in 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of
communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto. The 1917
October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for the rise to power of Lenins Bolsheviks. The
revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, in which the Bolsheviks had a
majority, the event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist
movement. Marx predicted that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by the
most advanced capitalist development, Russia, however, was one of the poorest countries in Europe
with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry and a minority of industrial workers. Marx had explicitly
stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule, the moderate Mensheviks
opposed Lenins Bolshevik plan for socialist revolution before capitalism was more fully developed.
The Great Purge of 1937–1938 was Stalins attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the
Communist Party and its leading role in the Second World War saw the emergence of the Soviet
Union as a superpower, with strong influence over Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. The European
and Japanese empires were shattered and Communist parties played a role in many independence
movements
2. Karl Marx – Karl Marx was a Prussian-born philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist, and
revolutionary socialist. Born in Trier to a family, he later studied political economy. His work has
influenced subsequent intellectual, economic, and political history. These economic critiques were set
out in works such as the three volumes, published between 1867 and 1894, that comprise Das
Kapital. According to Marx, states are run in the interests of the class but are nonetheless
represented as being in favor of the common interest of all. He predicted that, like previous
socioeconomic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction
and replacement by a new system, socialism. Marx actively fought for its implementation, arguing that
the class should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism. Marx has been
described as one of the most influential figures in human history and his work in economics laid the
basis for much of the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and subsequent
economic thought. Many intellectuals, labour unions, artists and political parties worldwide have been
influenced by Marxs work, Marx is typically cited as one of the principal architects of modern
sociology and social science. Karl Marx was born on 5 May 1818 to Heinrich Marx and he was born
at Brückengasse 664 in Trier, a town then part of the Kingdom of Prussias Province of the Lower
Rhine. Marx was ancestrally Jewish, his grandfather was a Dutch rabbi, while his paternal line had
supplied Triers rabbis since 1723. Marx was also a cousin once removed of German Romantic poet
Heinrich Heine, also born to a German Jewish family in the Rhineland. Largely non-religious, Heinrich
was a man of the Enlightenment, interested in the ideas of the philosophers Immanuel Kant, a
classical liberal, he took part in agitation for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, then governed by
an absolute monarchy. In 1815 Heinrich Marx began work as an attorney, in 1819 moving his family
to a property near the Porta Nigra. Her sister Sophie Pressburg, was Marxs aunt and was married to
Lion Philips Marxs uncle through this marriage, Lion Philips was a wealthy Dutch tobacco
manufacturer and industrialist, upon whom Karl and Jenny Marx would later often come to rely for
loans while they were exiled in London. Little is known of Karl Marxs childhood, the third of nine
children, he became the oldest son when his brother Moritz died in 1819. Young Karl was baptised
into the Lutheran Church in August 1824 along with his siblings, Sophie, Hermann, Henriette, Louise,
Emilie. Young Karl was privately educated, by Heinrich Marx, until 1830, by employing many liberal
humanists as teachers, Wyttenbach incurred the anger of the local conservative government

The term “communism” was derived from the Latin word meaning “universal” or “common”. As an
ideology, it encompasses social, political and economic attributes which aims to create a society of
equality devoid of social classes, money and state. Its goal is to provide education and health care to all
citizens with an ideology of common ownership. Despite its good intentions, however, there are
downsides to a communist society

6 Advantages and Disadvantages of Communism

February 24, 2016
The term “communism” was derived from the Latin word meaning “universal” or “common”. As an
ideology, it encompasses social, political and economic attributes which aims to create a society of
equality devoid of social classes, money and state. Its goal is to provide education and health care to all
citizens with an ideology of common ownership. Despite its good intentions, however, there are
downsides to a communist society. Let us discuss the two sides of this ideology.

List of Advantages of Communism

1. It embodies equality.
In a communist society, everybody is equal and no one is left alone. That is, no social class is better
than the other because there is no social class system at all. All the resources of a country like property
are under the control of the state and governed by a group that represents the masses. As such, citizens
have the peace of mind that all the people are equal. This is the opposite of capitalism where there are
businesses are owned by capitalists and employees who need to work in order to survive.
2. It makes health care, education and employment accessible to citizens.
What is seen as a significant advantage of communism is the access it gives to people when it comes to
attending school and given medical attention. This is because in this type of ideology, even the poorest
people can attend schools and provided with health care. It also minimizes unemployment because
everybody gets equal opportunities.
3. It does not allow business monopolies.
Since the government owns and controls the business as well as allots the money to be spent for
production costs, there is no business competition and no manufacturer is better than the other. This
means manufacturers can only produce limited number of goods and are unable to demand for higher
prices for their commodities and monopolize the market.

List of Disadvantages of Communism

1. It hampers personal growth.

One of the setbacks of communism is its being too controlling on the lives of the people.
Since it is a classless society, everyone is equal in social status and no one is above the
other. This can also be a disadvantage since people will feel they are at the end of the road
because there is no room for personal improvement. In Cuba, for example, all medical
professionals, medicines and hospitals are controlled by the government. The fees of these
professionals are regulated by the government and they cannot demand for higher fees.
2. It dictates on the people.
In a communist society, the government has the power to dictate and run the lives of people.
Although its goal is one of equality, there is basically less or no personal freedom at all to
criticize the government or demand for changes. Moreover, there is no freedom of speech
and whoever goes against the government can be subjected to punishments.
3. It does not give financial freedom.
Another setback of communism is the fact that entrepreneurs cannot expect to make more
money than the others. As opposed to a free market economy, the command economy which
is practiced by most communist countries ties the hands of business people. Consequently, it
is hard to get rich in these countries.