Apps
Contact
Seminars
RSS FeedCommunism versus Democracy
Basic trouble with this question
A basic trouble with this question (and with all articles that attempt to answer it), is that it is analogous to asking whether a person prefers Coke or Wheat bread. It would be more meaningful to ask whether person prefers Coke or Pepsi, or whether the person prefers Wheat or White bread. Democracy does not contradict communism by itself, and communism does not contradict democracy by itself. A state can follow fully democratic system, and the citizens can choose to follow communism form of economy.
Definitions
- Communism is a form of economic structure that encourages public ownership and discourages private interests.
- Democracy is a form of government that allows all citizens to participate actively in the governance and in the decision making progress.
Perceived Groupings
The following are the perceived groupings, and used quite widely in commentaries and comparisons of democracy and communism.
| Group 1 | Group 2 |
| Democracy | No participation in government |
| Capitalism | Communism |
| Right of self determination | No right of self determination |
| Right of free speech | Government controlled information |
Democracy does not guarantee right of secession
United States is a democratic country – the citizens can vote and choose their representatives, who can then change the laws to reflect the desires of the citizens. In the 1860s, the civil war divided this democratic nation, and the desire to secede of a large populace was suppressed, not by a voting mechanism, but by force. This is a feature that is currently associated with a communist regime. Even in the current peaceful times, democratic nations do not allow a systematic process of secession; for example, every 4 years, the citizens of each state choose their representatives, but they do not choose whether or not to stay as part of the same country.
Objectively measuring the degree of capitalism or communism
Every country (democratic or not) incurs some public spending. The capitalist countries try to keep the public spending to minimum, while socialist/communist countries typically have larger public spendings. Still, what should we measure, and where should we draw the line? Let us start by first creating a measure. Here are some options:
- GDP percentage of public sector output versus private (commercial) sector output: This is an easy objective measure. In transparent government, this may be fairly accurate. Still, this has a limitation. Under pressure to increase or decrease the “capitalism index”, government may change salary structure by adding/decreasing benefits.
- Populace supported by public sector versus private sector: This is also an easy objective measure. Two potential problems with this are: (i) how to account for people with incomes from both government and commercial sectors, and (ii) how to account for disparities between standards of living among different people (hypothesize a government which hires 50% of population, but only provides subsistence living)