# Why don't more people join the Communist Party of communist countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868 "2011-12-30T20:08:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/21 "2011-12-30T22:56:24Z")
(You know, I think I just stated the whole Party of the Masses and Party of the Vanguard exactly backward.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/22 "2011-12-30T23:21:53Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > My wife applied twice to join the Chinese Communist Party and she was rejected both times. They’re choosy. Think of it as akin to applying to an Ivy League university, except more politicized. What was her motive for wanting to join? What did she tell them the reason for her wanting to join was? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/23 "2011-12-31T01:52:06Z")
> [@These are my own pants](#): > > I’ve tried to look this up, becuase in the UK, party membership is clear i.e. your either pay your membership fee and have the right to vote in the leadership election or you don’t (only made slightly less unclear by for example trade union memebership of the Labour party). In the USA it seems much less clear, for example I could find no numbers for the national membership of the Republican or Democratic parties, suggesting that there isn’t a centralised membership. There’s not. The USA’s federalism has led to each state having its own state-level party. There are some common rules and structures, but not all state parties have formal membership as such. In my state, there are lists of people we think will vote Democratic, and we use them for mobilization of voters, but they’re woefully incomplete. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/24 "2011-12-31T01:55:44Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > … In my state, there are lists of people we think will vote Democratic, and we use them for mobilization of voters, but they’re woefully incomplete. Who exactly is the “we” in this case? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/25 "2011-12-31T02:21:47Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > What was her motive for wanting to join? It’s helpful and/or necessary in order to get good jobs, especially good government jobs. Her father, for instance, was something like a Lt. Colonel in the army, which meant that he was necessarily a Chinese Communist Party member. > [@Mangosteen](#): > > What did she tell them the reason for her wanting to join was? I assume she gave them the requisite B.S. about how great and important the C.P.C. is and how she wanted to serve her country, blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/26 "2011-12-31T03:19:42Z")
> [@Theophane](#): > > Communist regimes tend to be brutally oppressive and nightmarishly murderous. As examples I would cite the People’s Republic of China, the former Soviet Union, Cuba, Laos, the Socialist Vietnam, and that awful Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Not absolutely true, but that, and your point, is irrelevant. If you’re a member of the party in these countries, you get benefits and privileges that others do not get. For example, in the USSR, party members could shop in special stores that always had a good selection of food and other items. Nonmembers had to line up for whatever might be left over. You can bet that most people under these rule would have loved to be party members. But, as others have said, the party was very exclusive and only took on people that they could trust. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/27 "2011-12-31T03:29:58Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > This is a basic difference between Maoism and Leninism. Lenin held that the Revolution would be of the masses but led by a highly political aware Party. This is an elite “Vanguard” Party. > > Mao, faced with few politically aware city-dwellers made a virtue of necessity and called for a party of the masses. As a result, the Soviet Party was made up of college graduates who were very reliable. The Chinese Party also excluded whole classes of people, but admitted a higher percentage of the population. > > You see the same sort of debate in many groups. Should the church include only a few very-religous people or should it include those who need help to grow morally? Should a college be for smart people or for people who need them some education? One of the myriad ironies of the Chinese Civil War was that the Nationalists (Kuomintang, or KMT) was IIRC closer in party structure to the Soviet model then the Chinese Communist Party. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/28 "2011-12-31T04:22:36Z")
My understanding, based on what my students and friends in China told me, is that joining the party is a lot like joining the Freemasons. Basically, you pay a lot of money in dues and have to put up with boring meetings, but in return you get great career contacts. The dues are quite substantial, and people complain that it is basically a scam. But if you work for the government or are a go-getter in certain segments of society, it’s basically a requirement for career advancement. It’s through party contacts that ambitious young professionals move forward. For example, belonging to the party’s student organizations, and especially having a leadership role, is roughly the equivalent of belonging to an honors society in a US university. It’s selective, and it’s not something that everyone who qualifies really wants to bother with. But it can open a lot of doors. There are people who refuse to join in protest. I worked with a man who had nothing good to say about the party. Because he worked for a public university, he had to make some kind of pretense, so he joined one of the alternative parties. These parties are technically separate from the Communist Party, but are largely under the party’s purview and are not truly independent. Even joining an officially sanctioned alternative party is a pretty ballsy move, and his career was definitely affected by his choices. Other people aren’t in careers that really benefit from it. A lady who sells noodles on the street, for example, isn’t going to get anything useful out of the expensive dues. Others just can’t be bothered with the bullshit, and would rather make their own way in life than play the game. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/29 "2012-01-02T19:25:50Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > In my state, there are lists of people we think will vote Democratic, and we use them for mobilization of voters, but they’re woefully incomplete. > [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Who exactly is the “we” in this case? I used to do “Get Out the Vote” work, so whomever I was working for. “We” is state & local party committees, I guess. I should probably start a thread about USA parties. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/30 "2012-01-02T20:30:43Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > If you can find something to substantiate that, **kenobi 65** , I’d like to add it to my reference materials. I know of no meaningful non-mailing-list-related difference between being registered to vote Democrat/Republican/Independent and being a “card carrying” Democrat/Republican/Independent in the US. Thing is, I believe the US is the only country where you register to vote InsertIdeologyHere; your voting system mixes things which in other countries are separate, which are choosing a party’s officials and/or candidates, and voting for public officers. In other countries with multiple parties, being registered to vote in elections is something between a person and the government (and it’s often linked to being registered for other reasons; the same census which tells a Spanish family where to vote defines their school district and their medical district), whereas being affiliated to a party (that is, being able to vote in that party’s internal votes) is something between the person and that party. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/31 "2012-01-02T21:09:12Z")
I’ve been contributing to the Democratic National Committee since the mid-Eighties, and get a membership card every year. It looks nice but is essentially meaningless - it gives me no more authority, powers, pull or influence than anyone else. I do get White House Christmas cards when a Democrat is in office, though, which is nice. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/32 "2012-01-02T21:14:32Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > One of the myriad ironies of the Chinese Civil War was that the Nationalists (Kuomintang, or KMT) was IIRC closer in party structure to the Soviet model then the Chinese Communist Party. That was intentional. The KMT party structure was set up by the Soviets. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868/33 "2012-01-03T00:22:08Z")
A profoundly dumb idea whose time has come: [Virginia GOP Will Require Voters To Sign 'Loyalty Oath' - ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/virginia-gop-will-require-voters-to-sign-loyalty-oath/#.Tv0SNctTxVs.twitter) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-more-people-join-the-communist-party-of-communist-countries/607868.md?page=1)