What are all the countries that are considered communist by today’s standards? I tried a google search, and all it came back with was China and North Korea ad nauseum. I am asking this because I just realised I have (so far) gone through school and college with the only communist countries mentioned as the (former) Soviet Union, Vietnam, N. Korea, and China. Surely there are more…?
If we’re to consider self-denomination as proof of communism then Cuba should be added to that list.
There is Cuba, and I believe Cambodia is marginally communist still, is it not. Also, Mongolia is communist. Don’t know about Laos. Also, some of the former Soviet republics have strong communist tendencies (off the top of my head I seem to recall Turkmenistan being one of them).
China is interesting. It is still very much totalitarian, but there are more privately owned and competitive businesses than ever before. In the past couple decades they have been gradually but consistently loosening economic regulations, slipping along the slippery slope towards capitalism. There was an article in a recent Economist about how there are actual, real elections going on for some inconsequential offices now, too.
What is the difference between communist and socialist? The owneship of the means of production? More communist countries are beginning to look socialist these days. Many free countries are beginning to look socialist these days as well.
Neither term is well defined, but common usage is to use “socialist” to refer to the Western European-style democratic socialism that arose after WWII, while “communist” is used to refer to totalitarian socialist regimes, like China, the USSR, North Korea, etc.
Laos is communist according to the CIA World Fact Book. Mongolia peacefully abandoned communism after the fall of the Soviet Union, but I believe it has recently elected a huge communist majority in parliament. Still, the existence of democratic elections probably make it socialist, not communist.
Does that make all countries with democratic elections socialist?
No, just those which have a lot of their economy under government control.
Of course there’s no clear standard that defines the point at which a democracy is either socialist or has a free market. I think it makes much more sense to talk in terms of more specificity. For example, the UK has a socialist health care system, and the US has a socialist highway system. But both countries have very active free capitalist markets as well.
agreed. even the US’ educational system is largely a government monopoly.
I looked up “communism” and “socialism” in my dictionary. Both terms imply the lack of private property and government ownership of the means of production. So we won’t find a meaningful distinction in the dictionary. However, it did include as one definition of socialism as a stage in Marxist philosophy in the transition between capitalism and communism distinguished by the unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
From what I remember from high school (this was years ago), the major difference is this.
Communism: gov’t controls about every aspect of the economy, justice system, land ownership, powers that be, etc.
Socialism: free market with gov’t controlling tv, radio (though not newspapers exclusively), transportation (shipping, trains), national health care and national pensions.
This is, of course, remarkably simplified since the US, in essence, runs Amtrak.
Don’t crucify me, just trying to give a VERY simplified difference between the two.
I wonder if you’re not differentiating between two different axes - Socialism vs Capitalism and Statism vs Libertarianism (extending to Anarchy on the right and Totalitarianism on the left). While a pure communist state would be a Libertarian Socialist state, communist states to date have been Totalitarian Statist Socialist states.
The difference Communism and Socialism is very thin indeed. In college, we learnt that Marx defined his ideology as ‘Scientific Socialism’. So you may be right in saying that Communism is the logical end to Socialism.
China is rapidly dropping the communist/socialist dogma and becoming pretty dang capitalistic. The State Owned Enterprises make up less than 20% of the economy these days. I haven’t seen any recent studies for SOE, Government and Military percentages of the economy, but it could in fact be lower than that of the US.
The totalitarianism of the past is certainly loosening. One can argue about the pace and extent, but China is remarkably different in that respect than say 1989, which is the image most westerners have…You also might note that the economy has grown 8-12% annually since 1989, which means the economy has almost tripled since 1989.
In 2003 Angola advertises itself as a friend to Investors and welcomes them that way.
OTOH its’ government (since elected with 49% of the vote) was installed & kept in power by Cuban troops. It’s ruling party is still called the Marxist Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA). Angola’s constitution has been revised, but it is still basically a 1975 Marxist special built with Cuban & Soviet political experts.
But with Approx. 80% of its people living at subsistence level, (on less than $1 a day) it’s on and off again civil war: It has never truly become the Workers Paradise, that its benefactors (USSR/Cuba) or enemies (US/Apartheid South Africa) thought that it would.
Still & again it doesn’t advertise, but if you asked those in power if they were “Communists” the bottom line answer would be yes.
Appropos of nothing, but its’ flag is damn near THE most “communist looking” flag I’ve ever seen in my life.
http://www.flags.net/AGLA.htm
Cuba, China, N. Korea, Laos & vietnam are the only countries that are communist as of 2003 as far as i know.
Its hard to say about the others as some in latin america or asia may have elected communists to power as others in this thread have said.
No Latin American country besides Cuba has a communist form of government or an avowedly communist leader. The closest would be Chavez in Venezuela, who is an open admirer of Castro. Although he may want to move Venezuela in that direction, he’s a long way from being there yet.
If I had the powers of a Mod, I’d seriously consider making this post a Sticky.
Self-denomination isn’t enough - I could assert that I was a 50-year-old Black woman living in Tuscaloosa, but anybody who knows me knows that ain’t true. There are objective circumstances that make my self-appellation false. Similarly, any country that calls itself communist ought to be measured against the standards set by the founders of modern communism and how they said communism could be brought about.
And every country mentioned (with the exception of Russia, and that only for a very short time) fails that test.
No quarrell about the other three but China is not communist in any significant way except that they have an autoritarian regime which calls itself “communist”. Anyone who does business with China (and there are many who do) can tell you it is naked, raw in the tooth capitalism with even fewer protecttions and safeguards for the workers than you find in western countries we think of as capitalist. China is not communist in fact, although they still use the name.