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Communism and post-communism. Post-communist states. State Population GDP per capita Russia 142,893,540 $12,100 (P.P.P.) Poland 38,536,869 $14,100 (P.P.P.). Communist states under reform. State Population GDP per capita P.R.C. 1,313,973,713 $7,600 (P.P.P.)
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Post-communist states • State Population GDP per capita • Russia 142,893,540 $12,100 (P.P.P.) • Poland 38,536,869 $14,100 (P.P.P.)
Communist states under reform • State Population GDP per capita • P.R.C. 1,313,973,713 $7,600 (P.P.P.) • Vietnam 84,402,966 $3,100 (P.P.P.)
Communist states • State Population GDP per capita • Cuba 11,382,820 $3,900 (P.P.P.) • D.P.R.K. 23,113,019 $1,800 (P.P.P.)
Historical origins of the regimes • October Revolution in Russia (1917) • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics • East Europe and North Korea after WWII • Chinese revolution (1911-1949) • Chinese Communist Party • Vietnamese revolution (1945-1975) • Cuban revolution (1959)
A Soviet camp? • Warsaw Pact was established in 1955 in Eastern Europe to counter NATO • divisions within world communist movement • Albania and Yugoslavia broke free from Soviet control after the late 1940s • USSR-PRC ideological and military conflicts after the late 1950s
3 pillars of communist regime • Marxist ideology • Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) • Communist Party • Lenin (1870 - 1924) • command economy • Stalin (1879 - 1953)
Leninist party • Party monopoly • of the “correct ideology” • of political power • Communist Party • proletarian vanguard • alone could comprehend and represent the objective long-term interests of the masses
The Party State • Communist Party held monopoly on real decision-making power • government responsible for implementation • Communist Party leaders • cult of personality around Stalin • de-Stalinization after 1956 • collective leadership
Organization of Leninist party • nomenklatura • Party control of government • appointment to key positions • “democratic centralism” • centralized decision-making • internal discipline
Organization of Leninist party • hierarchy • General Secretary • Secretariat • Politburo • Central Committee • Party Committees at local levels • republics, provinces, counties, etc. • Party Committees/Branches in firms etc.
Command economy • state ownership of property • state management of firms • central planning
Command economy • Early successes • mobilization of resources • heavy industry • reduce poverty • later problems • consumer goods shortage • technologically backward • international competition
Reforms • Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” since late 1970s
Gorbachev’s Reforms (1985-91) • glasnost • openness in the political system • perestroika • economic restructuring • foreign policy • improved relationship with the West • transformed relationship with East European states
Collapse of communism (1989) • Democratization in East Europe • Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Romania, etc. • pro-democracy student movement in China • Tian’anmen Square • breakup of the Soviet Union • 1991