[edmundsauto]

Aren't democracy and communism orthogonal? Admittedly, I'm not a scholar, but it seems to me that democracy is mostly concerned w/ how leaders are chosen. Whereas communism is about how resources are distributed. It sounds possible to have a democratically elected government that sets a communist economic policy.

[JumpCrisscross]

> Aren't democracy and communism orthogonal?

Theoretically, yes. Practically, if you concentrate all ownership in the state you remove the means by which private citizens can check it.

[edmundsauto]

Isn’t communism ownership by the people? I thought totalitarianism or fascism is where the state owns the means of production.

[ishjoh]

I'm not aware of any communist country that didn't turn into an authoritarian state where the government imposed strict censorship and controls on the population.

When you look at why, it starts to make sense. Without strict economic controls black markets start to appear, where goods are bought and sold outside of the communist economy. Communist philosophy requires that black markets don't exist, because they allow for capitalism, private property, and a market economy. So Communism requires that these things be removed from society, which requires brute force.

Therefore taken from first principles, Communism is an authoritarian philosophy because it controls an individuals ability to buy, sell, and trade goods.

[chroem-]

That's not true, because the goal is to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat through violent revolution. Democracies are incompatible with dictatorship and must be overthrown in order to purge the other social classes. This is why every instance of communism has led to human rights abuses and/or mass murder: totalitarianism is part of the ideology.

[edmundsauto]

It’s been a long time since I read the Communist Manifesto. Do you mean to say that Marx’s goal was violent overthrow? I thought he described more of an evolution of systems until the workers paradise was reached.