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Definition: communism from The Macquarie Dictionary
1.

a theory or system of social organisation based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.

Plural: communisms

2.

a system of social organisation in which all economic activity is conducted by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party.

Plural: communisms

3.

noun

/'k6mj7n1z7m/ /'komyuhnizuhm/ communalism , communisms

Etymology: French communisme, from commun. See common


Communism

From Encyclopedia of Political Communication
Communism is a political and economic system that emerged in the 19th century and gained currency as a response to the problems of industrialization in Western Europe and the United States. Communism centered upon common ownership of property and distribution of goods and services based on need and not individual wealth or social class. Based in part upon utopian and socialist writings, communism was presented as a form of socialism in the Communist Manifesto , written by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels in 1848. With the Russian Revolution in 1917, communism became the ideological framework that would guide the Soviet Union and eastern bloc nations for the next 60 years. Revolutionaries in China turned to a form of communism in their rise to power in 1949 and activists in Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba adopted communism in the 1950s and 1960s to justify their crusade and offer a form of governing. In the United States and Western Europe, small, organized communist organizations sought…
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Full text Article Communism

From World of Sociology, Gale
V. I. Lenin triumphantly led the Bolsheviks...
Communism, in its simplest definition, refers to any ideology based on a social system in which all major resources are held in common and the means of production are controlled by, and for the benefit of, the community, thus creating a classless society in which all members contribute and all…
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Full text Article communism

From Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology
As a form of social organization and ideas about it, the term indicates societies in which property is commonly and fully owned and shared. In this sense, the only societies to which this definition is empirically applicable have been pre-agrarian (hunter and gatherer societies) or early agrarian…
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Full text Article communism

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Political outlook based on the principle of communal ownership of property. The theory derives from the interpretation of the course of human history defined by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . As outlined in the Communist Manifesto (1848), Capital (vol. 1, 1867), and other writings, Marx asserted…
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Full text Article communism

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
As a doctrine rather than a practice, communism refers to societies that have no private property, social classes or DIVISION OF LABOUR . K. Marx held that these societies would be formed gradually after the revolutionary overthrow of capitalist societies. He also noted that these three features are…
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Full text Article COMMUNISM

From The Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism
Communism itself derives from the Latin communis meaning shared or universal. Although the term has now become synonymous with the political writings of Karl Marx, the structuring of society around the principle of common ownership dates back to classical antiquity and is a prevalent theme…
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Full text Article Communism

From The Oxford Companion to International Relations
The term “communism” originated among revolutionary societies in 1830s Paris, where it combined two meanings. The first designated a political movement, of or on behalf of the working class, dedicated to the overthrow of emerging capitalist society. The second sense referred to the kind of society…
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Full text Article communism

From Encyclopedia of American Religious History
Communism, broadly defined, is a social theory advocating the holding of the means of production in common rather than individually. As a worldview of history, communism became a powerful alternative to the capitalism shaping western Europe and the United States in the 19th century. Undergirding a…
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Full text Article communism

From Encyclopedia of American Government and Civics
The communist ideology stemmed from the socialist doctrine envisioned by the German economists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In their writing of the Communist Manifesto in 1848, Marx and Engels demanded the elimination of the economic inequality (unequal wealth distribution) between the lower…
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Full text Article communism

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
fundamentally, a system of social organization in which property (especially real property and the means of production) is held in common. Thus, the ejido system of the indigenous people of Mexico and the property-and-work system of the Inca were both communist, although the former was a matter of…
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Full text Article communism

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Political theory advocating community ownership of all property, the benefits of which are to be shared by all according to the needs of each. The theory was principally the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . Their “Communist Manifesto” (1848) further specified a “dictatorship of the…
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