Term Paper on "Why Did Communism Fail?"

Term Paper 11 pages (3541 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Communism Fail?

To the general public one of the greatest shocks at the end of the twentieth century was the demise of the power of the Soviet Union. "the greatest surprise of the end of the twentieth century has been the suddenness and completeness of the Soviet system's collapse. "(Malia, 1993, p.80)

In effect the 'fall' of the Soviet Union meant that communism as a working and viable social and economic reality had in fact failed. In the years since the decline of the Soviet Union as a communist state and its adoption of more open and free market principles, there have been numerous studies, reports and conjecture on the reason or reasons for the failure of communism in this particular instance.

The reasons given for the failure of communism cover many diverse fields and disciplines. One view that has become popular follows from a critique of the communist system as being inherently unable to cope with internal and external tensions due to the very nature of its social and political structure. Other theories focus on an economic analysis of the fundamental cause of Soviet decline; while others point to the internal inconsistencies, conflicts within the system as well as to the overemphasis on bureaucratic procedures and the neglect of culture and nationalistic interests as well as the natural diversity of the different regions.

Possible the most appropriate and definitive view of the cause of the decline and eventual failure of communism is expressed by one critic who states that,.".. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a complex event with no clearly identifiable single cause." (Wilcoxson, 2004. p.51) in other words, it would be more correct from an historical, sociological and political point-of-view to see the collapse of the communist ideology in the Soviet Union as a complex mixture of various aspects.

Coupled with this is the view that the failure of communism in Russia can be compared to and seen in contradistinction to more successful manifestations of the communist ideology. There are many cases in the world where communism has been relatively successful and has been shown to be comparatively viable in the modern global economy and political climate.

One of the most common overarching reasons given for the failure of communism is that it does not provide for personal initiative and therefore individual motivation within the ambit of its ideology. This paper will investigate and explore some of the most prevalent of the reasons given for the fall of communism and will, at the same time, attempt to form some conclusions from the research that will shed light on the underlying and most important reasons for the failure of the communist system.

2. The Fall of communism

2.1. Brief outline of the rise and fall of Soviet communism

The failure of the communism and the decline and collapse of the social system was an awesome and historical occurrence. In reality what took place was the collapse if the political economy of the world's largest country. The Soviet Union comprised "...fully one-sixth of the world's land area..." (Strayer, 1998, p. 4) One of the clues to the collapse of the communist system lies in the fact that the Soviet Union was not a homogenous country but was rather composed of fifteen constituent republics. After the fall of communism, each of these areas "... assumed an independent existence, claiming full sovereignty within the larger international community." (Strayer, 1998, p. 4)

In brief, the Union of Soviet Republics was the result of Russian revolution of 1917. This revolution was the linked to theory and ideology from thinkers such as Karl Marx. Central to the Marxian view of society was the reaction to the capitalistic model of private ownership, unequal wealth distribution and class prejudice. For example, in this view private ownership is replaced by shared ownership of resources as the best way to ensure equality of privilege and wealth in a society. As will be discussed, this central aspect of the communist system is an important part in understanding the demise of the ideology in Russia.

Another constituent of Marxist theory was the ownership of the means of production. Marx theorized the common ownership of the means of production in the society was a crucial factor as those who controlled the means of production in capitalistic society were the privileged or elite class; but they were in the minority and had all the wealth and power. This resulted in a class struggle. In general, communist theory and praxis attempts to realign the unfair distribution of power and wealth.

Very briefly the history of communism can, somewhat simplistically, be divided into three main historical and political phase. The first phase refers to the creation of Soviet communist system under Lenin and Stalin. (Malia, 1993, p.80) This was the experimental phase of communism and was aimed at the creation of a fair and equitable social and political system. The second phase of the development of communism began after its success and victory in the Second World War. Russia also took possession of countries in Eastern Europe and expanded its territories and influence. "This second wave of communist revolution seemed to demonstrate that the system was not only permanent, but was also an expanding, and possibly a future dominant force in world affairs." (Malia, 1993, p.80)

The third phase is the phase that will be the focus of this paper - namely the period that "... extended from around 1965 to perestroika, and it was dominated by the concepts of "modernization" and "institutional pluralism." (Malia, 1993, p.80)

2.2. Overview of the main reasons for the failure of communism

As noted above, the fall of the Soviet Union as a viable communist state was in historical and relative terms, extremely sudden. A study by Malia, (1993) neatly encapsulates this aspect.

After three quarters of a century of communist expansion, and forty-five years of Cold War contest for global hegemony between "socialism" and "capitalism," the world had settled into the view that although the Soviet Union might not be eternal, it was at least permanent. Yet in the short span from 1989 to 1991 the whole Leninist edifice imploded without any of its guardians offering any serious resistance to the debacle. The most militant political movement of the modern age, which in its time had made a career of armed insurrections and minority coups d'etat, at the end proved capable only of the pitiful farce of August, 1991. (Malia, 1993, p.80)

In the first instance, the fall of communism is attributed by many scholars and researchers to the inherent fault lines in the very system itself. In simplistic terms, the failure of communism was due to the fact that it attempted to implement a system which was too idealistic and could not work, given the reality and the trends in human society and the world. Malia (1993) states that "... what the Soviets were trying to accomplish was from the very beginning impossible." (Malia, 1993, p.80)

In essence the central and historical aim of the communist ideology was to achieve a form of social and ideological utopia, which would bring about the end of history and resolve the conflicts between social classes and groups.

A let us recall that their aim was nothing less than to bring history to its culmination and its final perfection with the "building of socialism"; thus they understood socialism in its maximalist sense as the fullness of equality in the stateless, classless society, the overcoming of all alienation, and the passage of humanity "from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom." (Malia, 1993, p.80)

However these goals necessitated certain measures and social programs, which would have extensive repercussion for the communist system and for the society as a whole.

One of the most well - known of the measures that the communists implemented in an attempt to bring to fruition their ideological aspirations, was the abolition all private property. This also had the consequence of suppressing the profit motive and reducing the motivation to produce and create. This is often mentioned as an essential theoretical and practical point that was, in the view of many commentators, the central facet that led to the failure of communism. Therefore we could say that in the light of this analysis that communism failed due to the inability on the part of the communists to realize the innate need to create and produce for personal ends and to obtain private property. As Malia states;

the Soviet goal could be pursued only through a mixture of ideological illusion and raw coercion. But eventually the illusion could not fail to be perceived as such, and the will to coerce would accordingly evaporate; and when this occurred the whole jerry-built structure of what Brezhnev called "really-existing socialism" would come precipitately tumbling down. (Malia, 1993, p.80)

However, while this reasoning which does explain part of the puzzle of why communism failed, it is too simplistic and does not take account of a myriad of… READ MORE

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