# The Most Successful Communist Country To-Date.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-successful-communist-country-to-date/340446>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 18, 2006, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-successful-communist-country-to-date/340446 "2006-01-18T00:56:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2014, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-successful-communist-country-to-date/340446/61 "2014-08-18T11:12:59Z")

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> [@bup](#):
>
> Define “communist” - if just in name, then China is far and away the winner. But they’re not really communist. Neither are any modern governments anything like what Marx envisioned.
> 
> The most successful, that I know of, who fit the idea of communist but were never labelled as such were most Indian tribes. Most property was communal, government was by “tribal law” - like a jury, you debate until you reach consensus - and it was shameful to have plenty when others in your tribe were wanting.

Yes, there has not been a ‘communist society and govt’ by Marx’s definition. This cannot arise directly from feudal-based agricultural societies. Hence all the hand-waving ideological contortions of Lenin and Mao to justify their murderous, totalitarian power grabs.

When you have places as shit as Tsarist Russia or nationalist China there’s going to be revolution. What ideological clothes it dresses itself up in is dependent on historical circumstance. Nationalism, religion, ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’, Blood and Soil whatever.

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