What is Communism?

Communism is a political and economic ideology that aims to create a central unit of governance that shall be responsible for all the decision-making, and the main objective is not profit-making rather their objective is to fulfill the needs of society at large. The business houses will not have the power to make business decisions and central decision-making will regulate and guide the market proceedings. Here the central unit established shall direct businesses and the private sector about the pricing, market offering, and salary structures. Low decision-making power is given to the private sector after a review of the framework of capitalism.

Types of Communism

Communism includes a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include:

1. Marxism: This ideology believes that no economic class exists, including wage workers, and landowners. According to Marx, everyone should contribute what they can, and everyone should receive what they require.
2. Marxism-Leninism: Marxism-Leninism is a communist philosophical school of thought that arose as the dominant trend among Communist parties during the 1920s. Inspired by the 1917 Russian Revolution and the formation of the Soviet Union, Leninism’s philosophy was based on updated Marxism’s ideas, and Soviet Communism’s ideology used this as a theoretical foundation.
3. Trotskyism: Leon Trotsky’s Marxist philosophical thoughts are also known as Trotskyism. His politics differed from Joseph Stalin’s Marxism-Leninism in terms of declaring the requirement for an international proletarian revolution and the support for a true proletarian dictatorship which was based on direct autonomous ideology.
4. Luxemburgism: This is a revolutionary theoretical model based on the writings by Rosa Luxemburg that falls under the category of Communism. Her politics differed from Lenin and Trotsky primarily because she refused their concept of “democratic centralism,” which she described as undemocratic.
5. Religious Communism: This is a type of communism that is based on the religious beliefs of a community such as Christianity, Taoism, Jainism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. It refers to having a group of classless and utopian religious societies that practice voluntary abolition of the idea of private property, allowing society’s benefits to be distributed based on individual needs and everyone to work as per their abilities.

Difference Between Communism and Socialism: The difference between Socialism and Communism is a matter of long debate. Scholars have their thoughts on the genesis and the practicality. Socialism, for the matter, seeks to bring equality among the means of production to the working class, whereas Communism takes the concepts of socialism a step further and revolutionizes the aspects of production and consumption.

In this article, we will look into the definitions, types, and examples of communism and socialism. Also, we will cover the key differences between communism and socialism.