Blackwell Reference Online

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Communism will be examined in its two major guises: first, as a principle of social organization that has been advocated since at least the time of ancient Greece; and second, as a political movement and system of government that held power over a substantial part of the earth's surface during the twentieth century. Though communism may nowadays be most readily associated with the works of Marx and his disciples, Marx grafted a historically specific project of socialism onto an idea of great antiquity. The core proposition of communism is that the private ownership of property must cease because it is the major cause of social evils, including egoism, excess, and conflict. The ideal of a communist society substantially overlaps with utopia. However, the relationship between the communist ideal and the reality of communist states, by way of socialism, is not at all straightforward. Communism was first systematically examined and advocated in Plato's Socratic dialogue about the good society – The Republic – written nearly 2,500 years ago. For Socrates, however, the communal sharing of goods and women was to be restricted to only one of the three classes of his ideal society, the Guardians, so that they would advance the common interest and not their own. Some ancient communities have, for certain periods, held their goods in common. This was the case, for example, in some of the ... log in or subscribe to read full text