List of communist ideologies

Self-identified communists hold a variety of views, including Marxism–Leninism, Leninism, Dengism, Trotskyism, Stalinism, Council communism, Luxemburgism, Anarchist communism, Christian communism, Islamic socialism, and various currents of Left communism. However, the offshoots of the Leninist interpretations of Marxism are the most well-known of these and have been a driving force in international relations during most of the 20th century.[1]

This list includes ideologies which are or were

Besides the principal communist ideologies (like Marxism or Anarchist communism), the list may contain also branches limited in their theoretical scope (e.g., Lysenkoism) or in their regional extent (e.g., Kádárism), provided they fulfil the above conditions.

Marxist Communism

Leninism and Marxism–Leninism

Main articles: Leninism and Marxism–Leninism

Marxism–Leninism is a synthesis of philosophical and economic theories of Karl Marx with the revolutionary political theories of Vladimir Lenin. Lenin brought Marxism into the 20th century, with his original theoretical contributions such as his analysis of imperialism, principles of party organization, and the implementation of socialism through revolution and reform thereafter. As the official ideology of the Soviet Union, Marxism-Leninism was adopted by Communist parties worldwide with variation in local application. Parties with a Marxist-Leninist understanding of the historical development of socialism advocate for the nationalisation of natural resources and monopolist industries of capitalism and for their internal democratization as part of the transition to workers' control. The economy under such a government is primarily coordinated through a universal economic plan with varying degrees of market distribution. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, many communist Parties of the world today continue to use Marxism-Leninism as their method of understanding the conditions of their respective countries.

Stalinism

Main article: Stalinism

"Stalinism" is a political term with a variety of uses. Most commonly, it is used as a pejorative shorthand for Marxism-Leninism (see above) by a variety of competing political tendencies, such as capitalism and Trotskyism. Although Stalin himself repudiated any qualitatively original contribution to Marxism, the communist movement usually credits him with systematizing and expanding the ideas of Vladimir Lenin into the ideology of Marxism-Leninism as a distinct body of work. In this sense, Stalinism can be thought of as being roughly equivalent to Marxism-Leninism, although this is not universally agreed upon.

At other times, the term is used as a general umbrella term, again pejoratively, to describe a wide variety of political systems and governments, including the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact countries of Europe, Mongolia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Albania, Angola, and others. In this sense, it can be seen as being roughly equivalent to actually existing socialism, although sometimes it is used to describe "authoritarian" governments that are not socialist.

At any rate, some of the contributions to communist theory that Stalin is particularly known for are:

Trotskyism

Main article: Trotskyism

Trotsky and his supporters organized into the Left Opposition and their platform became known as Trotskyism. Joseph Stalin eventually succeeded in gaining control of the Soviet regime and Trotskyist attempts to remove Stalin from power resulted in Trotsky's exile from the Soviet Union in 1929. During Trotsky's exile, world communism fractured into two distinct branches: Stalinism and Trotskyism.[1] Trotsky later founded the Fourth International, a Trotskyist rival to the Comintern, in 1938.

Trotskyist ideas have continually found a modest echo among political movements in some countries in Latin America and Asia, especially in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Sri Lanka. Many Trotskyist organizations are also active in more stable, developed countries in North America and Western Europe. Trotsky's politics differed sharply from those of Stalin and Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international proletarian revolution (rather than socialism in one country) and unwavering support for a true dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic principles.

However, as a whole, Trotsky's theories and attitudes were never accepted in worldwide mainstream Communist circles after Trotsky's expulsion, either within or outside of the Soviet bloc. This remained the case even after the Secret Speech and subsequent events critics claim exposed the fallibility of Stalin.

Some criticize Trotskyism as incapable of using concrete analysis on its theories, rather resorting to phrases and abstract notions.[3][4][5]

Maoism

Main article: Maoism

Maoism is the Marxist-Leninist trend of Communism associated with Mao Zedong and was mostly practiced within the People's Republic of China. Khrushchev's reforms heightened ideological differences between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union, which became increasingly apparent in the 1960s. As the Sino-Soviet Split in the international Communist movement turned toward open hostility, China portrayed itself as a leader of the underdeveloped world against the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.

Parties and groups that supported the Communist Party of China (CPC) in their criticism against the new Soviet leadership proclaimed themselves as 'anti-revisionist' and denounced the CPSU and the parties aligned with it as revisionist "capitalist-roaders." The Sino-Soviet Split resulted in divisions amongst communist parties around the world. Notably, the Party of Labour of Albania sided with the People's Republic of China. Effectively, the CPC under Mao's leadership became the rallying forces of a parallel international Communist tendency. The ideology of CPC, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought (generally referred to as 'Maoism'), was adopted by many of these groups.

After Mao's death and his replacement by Deng Xiaoping, the international Maoist movement diverged. One sector accepted the new leadership in China; a second renounced the new leadership and reaffirmed their commitment to Mao's legacy; and a third renounced Maoism altogether and aligned with Albania.

Dengism

Main article: Deng Xiaoping Theory

A reformist communism, and a branch of Maoism, however it is often criticised by traditional Maoists. Heavily influenced by Lenin and Nikolai Bukharin's New Economical Policy, Dengists believes that the current productivity of the society is not strong enough to reform the society into pure public ownership stage of Socialism (see primary stage of socialism); we are not ready for it both technologically and culturally. In order to encourage and promote the advancement of the productivity by creating competition and innovation, we need to introduce a certain market element in a Socialist country. Dengists still believes that we need public ownership of land and raw materials, so a democratically elected government can make decisions on how to use them for the benefit of the country as a whole instead of the land owners. But at the same time, private ownership is allowed and encouraged in industries of finished goods and services. According to the Dengism theory, private owners in those industries are not bourgeois. Because as Marx teaches, bourgeois owns land and raw materials.[6][7][8] Therefore, in a Dengist country, private company owners are called "minyinqiyejia" (民营企业家 "civil run enterprises"). The People's Republic of China was the first country which adopted this belief. It boosted its economy and achieved the "China Miracle". It has increased the Chinese GDP growth rate to over 8% per year for 30 years and China now has the second highest GDP in the world. Due to the influence of Dengism, Vietnam and Laos have also adopted this belief, which allowed Laos to increase its real GDP growth rate to 8.3%.[9] Cuba is also starting to embrace this idea.

Dengists also take a very strong position against any form of personality cults which appeared in the Soviet Union during Stalin's rule and the current North Korea.

Prachanda Path

Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Prachanda Path (Nepali: मालेमावाद र प्रचण्डपथ Mālemāvād ra Prachaṇḍapath) refers to the ideological line of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). It is considered to be a further development of Marxism-Leninism and Maoism. It is named after the leader of the CPN(M), Pushpa Kamal Dahal, commonly known as 'Prachanda'. "Prachanda Path" was proclaimed in 2001. The formulation of Prachanda Path was partially inspired by the Communist Party of Peru, which refers to its ideological line as 'Marxism-Leninism-Maoism-Gonzalo Thought'. Prachanda Path doesn't make an ideological break with Marxism, Leninism or Maoism but rather is an extension of these ideologies based on the political situation of Nepal. The doctrine came into existence after it was realized that the ideology of Marxism, Leninism and Maoism couldn't be practiced as done in the past. Thus Prachanda Path, based on the circumstances of Nepalese politics was adopted by the party.

Hoxhaism

Main article: Hoxhaism

Another variant of anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism appeared after the ideological row between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978. The Albanians rallied a new separate international tendency. This tendency would demarcate itself by a strict defense of the legacy of Joseph Stalin and fierce criticism of virtually all other Communist groupings as revisionist. Critical of the United States, Soviet Union, and China, Enver Hoxha declared the latter two to be social-imperialist and condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia by withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact in response. Hoxha declared Albania to be the world's only state legitimately adhering to Marxism-Leninism after 1978. The Albanians were able to win over a large share of the Maoists, mainly in Latin America such as the Popular Liberation Army and Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador, but also had a significant international following in general. This tendency has occasionally been labeled as 'Hoxhaism' after him.

After the fall of the Communist government in Albania, the pro-Albanian parties are grouped around an international conference and the publication 'Unity and Struggle'.

Titoism

Main article: Titoism

Elements of Titoism are characterized by policies and practices based on the principle that in each country, the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by the conditions of that particular country, rather than by a pattern set in another country. During Josip Broz Tito’s era, this specifically meant that the communist goal should be pursued independently of (and often in opposition to) the policies of the Soviet Union.

The term was originally meant as a pejorative, and was labeled by Moscow as a heresy during the period of tensions between the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia known as the Informbiro period from 1948 to 1955.

Unlike the rest of East Europe, which fell under Joseph Stalin's influence post-World War II, Yugoslavia, due to the strong leadership of Marshal Tito and the fact that the Yugoslav Partisans liberated Yugoslavia with only limited help from the Red Army, remained independent from Moscow. It became the only country in the Balkans to resist pressure from Moscow to join the Warsaw Pact and remained "socialist, but independent" right up until the collapse of Soviet socialism in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Throughout his time in office, Tito prided himself on Yugoslavia's independence from Russia, with Yugoslavia never accepting full membership of the Comecon and Tito's open rejection of many aspects of Stalinism as the most obvious manifestations of this.

Eurocommunism

Main article: Eurocommunism

Since the early 1970s, the term Eurocommunism was used to refer to the ideology of moderate, reformist communist parties in western Europe. These parties did not support the Soviet Union and denounced its policies. Such parties were politically active and electorally significant in Italy (PCI), France (PCF), and Spain (PCE).[10]

Luxemburgism

Main article: Luxemburgism

Luxemburgism is a specific revolutionary theory within Marxism and communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg.

Council communism

Main article: Council communism

Council communism is a far-left movement originating from Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. The Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD) was the primary organization that espoused council communism. Council communism continues today as a theoretical and activist position within both Marxism and libertarian socialism.

The central argument of council communism, in contrast to social democracy and Leninist Communism, is that democratic workers councils arising in factories and municipalities are the natural form of working class organisation and governmental power. This view is opposed to both the reformist and the Leninist ideologies, with their stress on, respectively, parliaments and institutional government (i.e., by applying social reforms), on the one hand, and vanguard parties and participative democratic centralism on the other).

The core principle of council communism is that the government and the economy should be managed by workers' councils composed of delegates elected at workplaces and recallable at any moment. As such, council communists oppose totalitarian socialism. They also oppose the idea of a "revolutionary party", since council communists believe that a party-led revolution will necessarily produce a party dictatorship. Council communists support a worker's democracy, which they want to produce through a federation of workers' councils. Council communism (and other types of "anti-authoritarian and Anti-leninist Marxism" such as Autonomism) are often viewed as being similar to anarchism because they criticize Leninist ideologies for being authoritarian and reject the idea of a vanguard party.

21st century communist theorists

According to the political theorist Alan Johnson there has been a revival of serious interest in communism in the 21st century led by Slavoj Zizek and Alain Badiou. Other leading theorists are Michael Hardt, Toni Negri, Gianni Vattimo, Alessandro Russo, and Judith Balso. Also Alberto Toscano, translator of Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton and Bruno Bosteels. Many of these advocates contributed to the three-day conference, “The Idea of Communism,” in London in 2009 that drew a substantial paying audience. Theoretical publications, some published by Verso Books, include The Idea of Communism, edited by Costas Douzinas and Zizek, Badiou’s The Communist Hypothesis, and Bosteels’s The Actuality of Communism. The defining common ground is the contention that 'the crises of contemporary liberal capitalist societies—ecological degradation, financial turmoil, the loss of trust in the political class, exploding inequality—are systemic; interlinked, not amenable to legislative reform, and requiring “revolutionary” solutions.'[11]

Non-Marxist Communism

The most widely held forms of communist theory are derived from Marxism, but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and anarchist communism) also exist and are growing in importance since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Anarchist communism

Main article: Anarchist communism
Peter Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread, first published in 1892, provided early arguments in favor of anarcho-communism.

Some of Marx's contemporaries espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a classless society. Following the split between those associated with Marx and Mikhail Bakunin at the First International, the anarchists formed the International Workers Association.[12] Anarchists argued that capitalism and the state were inseparable and that one could not be abolished without the other. Anarchist-communists such as Peter Kropotkin theorized an immediate transition to one society with no classes. Anarcho-syndicalism became one of the dominant forms of anarchist organization, arguing that labor unions, as opposed to Communist parties, are the organizations that can change society. Consequently, many anarchists have been in opposition to Marxist communism to this day.

Christian communism

Main article: Christian communism

Christian communism is a form of religious communism centered on Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ urge Christians to support communism as the ideal social system. Christian communists trace the origins of their practice to teachings in the New Testament, such as this one from Acts of the Apostles at chapter 2 and verses 42, 44, and 45:

42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship [...] 44 And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; 45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. (King James Version)

Christian communism can be seen as a radical form of Christian socialism. Also, because many Christian communists have formed independent stateless communes in the past, there is also a link between Christian communism and Christian anarchism. Christian communists may or may not agree with various parts of Marxism.

Christian communists also share some of the political goals of Marxists, for example replacing capitalism with socialism, which should in turn be followed by communism at a later point in the future. However, Christian communists sometimes disagree with Marxists (and particularly with Leninists) on the way a socialist or communist society should be organized.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Communism". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). 2007.
  2. ↑ "Marxism and the National Question"
  3. ↑ On Trotskyism
  4. ↑ Swedish FRP on anti-Marxist-Leninist dogmas of Trotskyism
  5. ↑ What's Your Line?
  6. ↑ http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/mediafile/200607/05/F2006070515295500635.swf
  7. ↑ http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/mediafile/200607/05/F2006070515261400629.swf
  8. ↑ http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/mediafile/200607/05/F2006070515274900631.swf
  9. ↑ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2003rank.html
  10. ↑ Colton, Timothy J. (2007). "Communism". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2009-10-31.
  11. ↑ Alan Johnson (May–June 2012). "The New Communism: Resurrecting the Utopian Delusion". World Affairs. A specter is haunting the academy—the specter of “new communism.” A worldview recently the source of immense suffering and misery, and responsible for more deaths than fascism and Nazism, is mounting a comeback; a new form of left-wing totalitarianism that enjoys intellectual celebrity but aspires to political power.
  12. ↑ Marshall, Peter. "Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism" p. 9. Fontana Press, London, 1993 ISBN 978-0-00-686245-1

External links

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