Comparative Politics: Domestic Responses to Global Challenges, Seventh Edition

by Charles Hauss

Chapter 8: Current and Former Communist

Regimes

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, students should be able to:• identify the basic characteristics of Marxist-Leninist states.• describe the creation and evolution of Marxist nation-states.• explain briefly the socialist critique of capitalism.• explain briefly the Marxist critique of liberal democracy.• identify the primary factors that brought an end to most Marxist

states.• identify the reforms initiated by former President Gorbachev

and explain why they failed to save the Soviet Union.

Crisis? What Crisis? • In former communist states, few people want to

return to communist rule • People miss the security of the party • Some former communist states joined EU and

NATO; turning economic corner • Few protest new regimes where democracy has

taken root• Poverty and ethnic conflict in some states • Eurasian countries are in midst of transition for

which there is no real precedent

Thinking about the Current and Former Communist Regimes

• Weaknesses of communist regimes appeared by 1980s

– States relaxed repressive policies

– Factional disputes divided Chinese rulers

– Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of USSR

Thinking about the Current and Former Communist Regimes

• Former communist states declared themselves democracies

– Transitions very difficult– Countries that have joined EU and NATO have

made progress politically and economically

• China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba remain communist regimes

Thinking about Communism

• Marxist-Leninist regimes:

– Former USSR in 1917

– Eastern Europe—“Satellite States” after WWII

– Asia—China 1949

– Cuba 1959

– Several Marxist-like regimes in North Africa, Arabia, and South America

Thinking about Communism

• The Leninist state– Communist Party controlled all political

life– Democratic centralism was regime

paradigm– Until 1950s, USSR controlled

“Communist World”– China and USSR split in late ‘50s offered

an alternative model

Thinking about Communism

• Command economies– Government owned and controlled nearly

all industrial and retail activity– State planning committees determined

output and consumption goals– Benefits of command economies began

diminishing in late ‘80s, planning and coercion could not stimulate innovation

Thinking about Communism• Key questions

– What contemporary and historical, domestic and international forces shaped their development?

– How are decisions made in these countries?– What role do average citizens play in policy making?– What are the public policies?– How is political life affected by global forces?– How could regimes that seemed so strong collapse so quickly?– What have some communist systems survived? What are the

political implications of economic reform in countries that have kept communism and in those that have abandoned it?

– Why are they all facing much more serious domestic and global challenges than any of the countries covered in Part 2?

Socialism, Marxism, Leninism

• Socialism– Capitalism leads to inequality – Equality of outcome necessary – Public ownership of means of production– Freedoms are vital, but democracy should

be expanded – Capitalism does not allow humans to realize

their potential – Public ownership would improve human

relations

Socialism, Marxism, Leninism

• Marxism– Dialectic—evolution of society when basic values

are challenged – Historical materialism—distribution of economic

power – Contradictions—people will not accept being

exploited and will revolt – Bourgeoisie vs. Proletariat– Alienation of the proletariat – Revolution—but not long because the proletariat

overwhelms the capitalists – Dictatorship of the proletariat – Communism

Figure 8.1: Base, Superstructure, and Contradictions, According to Marx

Figure 8.2: The Role of Money in Feudalism and Capitalism

Socialism, Marxism, Leninism• Marxism-Leninism

– Democratic centralism– Revolutions did not occur in advanced

industrialized societies

• Expansion– Third International (Comintern)– Eastern Europe– Asia

• Stalinism—totalitarianism

Socialism, Marxism, Leninism

• De-Stalinization– Khrushchev’s “secret speech” (1956)– Slight loosening of intellectual controls– Khrushchev replaced by a series of hardline leaders

who resisted change after Cuban Missile Crisis – Brezhnev era of more control and economic

stagnation• No longer a unified communist movement• Need to change grew at a time leaders were

trying to prevent change

The Marxist-Leninist State

• The party state– Secretariat– Politburo and General Secretary – Nomenklatura– All groups were communist groups – Communism was about the party leaders,

not Marx’s intention– Control not as absolute in Eastern Europe

The Marxist-Leninist State

• The party state in China

– Mao objected to de-Stalinization

– Cultural revolution 1965

– After Mao’s death in 1976, moderates led economic change but not political

The Marxist-Leninist State

• The graying of communism: “thumbs” and “fingers”

– Leaders found it difficult to continue to control societies, especially with media, Western tourists, and a better educated public

– “Lack of fingers” resulted in a poor standard of living

– Even military lagged– Communist countries in an even deeper

economic bind with a globalizing economy

The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy

Reform: Too Little, Too Late• Gorbachev reforms to “revitalize” communism

– Glasnost: Openness in a political system – Democratization of the party– Perestroika: Economic restructuring – New thinking in foreign policy

• Change and resistance in Eastern Europe: cultural change occurred more rapidly

The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy

1989: The Year That Changed the World– Solidarity in Poland– Opening the Iron Curtain in Hungary– Emigration and protest in East Germany, fall of

Berlin Wall in 1989– Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution”– Violent revolution in Romania– Massive protest in Tiananmen Square– 1991—fall of communism in former USSR, Boris

Yeltsin

The Crisis of Communism: Suicide by Public Policy

• The remnants of the communist world– A few parties and governments are willing to

continue to use force– Countries too poor and too closed to outside

influences– Most had been outside Soviet Union’s

sphere of influence for some time

Transitions

• Economies hit rock bottom and began to recover by the middle or late 1990’s

• Only a handful have made major progress toward democracy or capitalism

Transitions

• Relative Success: Eastern and Central Europe

– Hungary as an example: • Relative ethnic homogeneity• Economic progress with reform• Communist leaders made common cause with

opposition (pacting)

Transitions

• Troubled transitions: The former Soviet Union

– No real shift of power to new leaders– Great problems with corruption

• Ethnic conflict– The former Yugoslavia– Russian war with rebels in Chechnya

Transitions

What's Left of Marxism?• North Korea and Cuba have maintained

Marxist-Leninist systems– Countries are among the poorest in the world

• China and Vietnam have reformed economies– Monopoly power of Communist Parties remains– Countries are among the poorest in the world

Feedback

• Marxist-Leninist regimes controlled all media– Authorities kept Western media out

• Loosening of controls in 1980s • Russian state still controls the media, but the

press is relatively open • Radio, satellite television, cell phones, and the

Internet have made controls much more difficult

Conclusion: The End of the Cold War important because

• Cold War determined the evolution of communist and non-communist states

• Communist past vital to understanding present of communist and former communist states today