Is it possible to have a communist democracy?

Question

Communism has always been labeled "anti-American", but why? What prevents a society from having both communism and democracy? Why do dictators thrive in communism? Why is capitalism considered democratic?

Answer 1

Ok this is a hard one, if you define communism as the means of production (ie 'farms industry etc). being held by the state and wealth being distributed by the state supposedly on an equal basis for all citizens. Where also the government is elected by a free vote then arguably such a society would in some senses be more democratic. Theoretical communism by definition requires that the means of production ie the wealth creating enterprises are owned jointly by all. In other words communism and capitalism are wholly contradictory while communism and a democracy could easily co-exist. However these theoretical concepts of communism are not what came to be practiced in the Soviet Union and China, which is how communism got such a bad rap especially in the US. They became totalitarian dictatorships where political dialog and a meaningful democracy vanished. I dont think there is anything in communism that inherently leads to dictatorship its just thats the way it worked out in the historical examples that we have. The final question is the most interesting of all, firstly capitalism is not uniquely democratic - there are simply too many examples of capitalist dictatorships. In fact it could be strongly argued that the western capitalist democracies are just as much a perversion of a theoretical democracy as the Soviet Union was a perversion of communism. Is there REALLY equality of opportunity? Is there REALLY equality under the law? Is political success determined more by merit and ideas or money? As a society do we protect and nurture ALL our citizens equally according to their needs? Do we have equality of Health care? Do all our citizens have access to higher education based on merit or is it money that counts? All of these in my opinion impact the real meanigfulness of a claim to be a democracy. Think about it if the US is such a perfect capitalist democracy why would the millions of 'have nots' in the society vote democratically for the candidates and policies of both major parties which to a greater or only slightly lesser extent enrich the far smaller number of 'haves' in the society by transferring wealth to the wealthiest. Simply why would the majority of people consistently vote against their own best interest. There are probably many reasons but among them would be democracy provides the freedom to be ignorant, manipulated, controlled and subtly bought cheaply.

Perhaps the best balance between communist totalitariansim and capitalist 'democracies' can be found in Western Europe - these could be described as the 'socialist capitalist democracies' At the same time while they have democratically elected governments and are capitalist, the means of production of wealth are privately owned. That wealth is far more evenly distributed through progressive taxation policies than in the US which increasingly favors putting more and more wealth in the hands of the wealthy. Additionally the European democracies are more socially responsible in the sense that they respect the more needy members of society - be it thru access to Higher education, health care or social welfare. In contrast pure capitalism and the US is about as close as you can come to pure capitalism is wholly un democratic for as we have seen so often the dollar manipulates or controls the 'democratic' vote and chooses the 'democratic' candidate. It is hardly suprizing that those who have the cash manipulate the capitalist 'democracy' for their own benefit. A meaningful democracy cannot exist until the power of money is overwhelmed by the power of ideas based upon some agreed moral philosophy. To some limited and imperfect extent this has been achieved in some of the Western European Democracies.

Answer 2

If you take the humanistic aspect out, yes, you could probably acheive a communist democracy. Certainly, the idea of communism, with its share and share alike qualities, seems like a nice idea. And democracy (for the people, by the people) is, in my opinion, also an unrecognised ideal.

However, you have to look at the nature of people. In any society, SOMEONE has to be in charge. This means that there has to be some break in the communist ideal. If you have true communism, that would mean that there's no leading and there's no following. We all know that no country can function like that. So you have someone rise to the top as a leader early on, and the people get angry shortly thereafter, since they realize that the very fact that having a leader is anti-communist.

Not to mention, in a communist country, there is no sanctioned method of how to give and regulate power. Therefore, there's no checks and balance system, and there are no elections or terms of office. There's no way to hold the leadership accountable and there's no way to keep the leadership ever-changing so one person doesn't monopolize the power. If the power changeover is non-existent, that means one person stays in office for a long time. Since there's no regulations on his decisions, he can pretty much do whatever he wants. Put those together, and you have the makings of totalitarian regimes.

Communism means that no one is wealthier than another (theoretically, but it doesn't happen that way realistically). The "American Dream" means that with hard work, you can rise in success. That's completely the opposite of the "even ground" idea of communism. Therefore, Communism is considered "anti-American".

Answer 3

Yes, I believe it is possible but only in a extremely advance society where most people think and work for the common good and not only for the good of the individual. Most Americans will have a heart attack if they knew they precious dollar is used to pay for the needs of the rabble. Once I heard one of those geniuses called talk radio host say, and every single caller agreed, that he would not pay a single penny more in taxes to pay for his neighbor medical and to educate his childrens, but he would do it so the government can make more bombs to defend it self; if his neighbor dies because he has no money for his medical needs it doesn't affect him, but if another country attacks his country he could die. Then he said in the same program students should not receive any help from the government to go to collage, if hey don't have the money they should work at least two jobs or work and save money and then go to school, and most callers agreed, I have that program in a tape. Recently I read a book which states that some of the ideologues sent to Iraq were horrified at the fact the Iraqis had free medical and free education. Now, lets ask the question one more time. What prevents a society from having both sides of the isle is very simple: ignorance, selfishness and greed. Capitalism makes you believe that you are the master of your destiny, that every body have equal opportunity to get reach, really?. Well, of course, not every body have what it takes, but that's the problem. A dictator is just that, he will use what ever suts him in any given moment in history to impose his will on the weak for his own ambitions, wheather it be religion, communisism or any other excuse. I don't think we should condent communism just because some dictators have use it for their own ambitions. If that is OK then we should condent religion.

Answer 4

You think communists vote? You think Mao and Stalin ran good honest campaigns and came to power by the voice of their people? Democracy is the people voting, communism is not. I would say republican are the ones who want power in the hands of the few. Look at communist countries, I mean seriously, read a book. Were these liberal people? No buddy, no there were not. Now look at Russia... You see all those palaces, people were not equal, you had power or you didn't have power. Communism sounds kinda right wing to me. Conservative culture, a fortunate few, maybe throw in a state religion. Nothing about that says democrat. --- Stalin was a totalitarianism government. Majority of communist are totalitarianism--- Sooo, he was a communist? Are you saying he wasn't a communist, because your rebuttal says he probably was? Anyways we're not talking about totalitarianism, we're talking abouit whether democrats are communists.. There's a difference between a liberal republic and a conservative republic, but it's still republics. Ipso fato guy was a communist, plus he had a rocking stash.

Answer 5

Communism is an economic system. Democracy is a political system. It is theoretically possible for a nation to have a Communist economic system and a Democratic political system, but they've always preferred dictatorship. In the same sense, it is not necessary that a capitalist economy have Democracy. "Communist" China, which is thoroughly captialist but won't admit it, is not Democratic. And in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, powerful industrialists felt that Fascism was a better political system for them to maximize their fortunes. American ultra-rightists tend to feel the same way without embracing the label of fascism.

Answer 6

Technically, Communism and Capitalism are economic systems; while Democracy and Dictatorship are political systems. There have been and still are Capitalist Dictatorships, so there is nothing in capitalism that is necessarily democratic. By definition you could have a Communist Democracy, but this has never worked out.

Answer 7

To have communism and capitalist driven democracy is fairly impossible. Communism is working for the good and enrichment of the whole and capitalist democracy is working for the benefit of self with a voted leadership. I think the closest you could get would be a Socialist Republic.

Answer 8

Well...yes and no. You could probably have free elections with different communitst political parties....but as for a true democracy were the absolute control is with the people i dont think thats possible. You would have to have a major overhaul of values and laws of a communist goverment and give it an entirely different name, due to the fact that its not purely communist or marxist.

Answer 9

No. Socialist Democracy is possible but Communism requires... in its first few baby years.. a dictator to force the economy to socialism.. the idea is that he/she then steps down.. but they never do.

{edit}

Communism is NOT an economic system... SOCIALISM is... Communism is the whole violent overthrow to become socialist utopian.

Answer 10

In this world no because every time it auctually happend the USA "intervienes" .There is no end of evidence to prove this point just look at south america they have tried countless times. Cuba is the only surviving communist countey in bombing range of the US. Any by the way it is socalism not communism.