This article is about a form of government in which the state operates under the control of a Communist Party. For information regarding communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, or as a popular movement, see the communism article. See also criticisms of Communist party rule.

Communist state is a term used by many political scientists to describe a form of government in which the state operates under a one-party system and declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism or a derivative thereof. Communist states may have several legal political parties, but the Communist Party is constitutionally guaranteed a dominant role in government. Consequently, the institutions of the state and of the Communist Party become intimately entwined. A form of government is a colloquial term that refers to the set of political institutions by which a state is organized in order to exert its powers over a political community. ... A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern the people in one or more societies, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. ... See also: Political Science Notable political scientists Kenneth Arrow - Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist who published influential paper on his widely cited Arrows Impossibility Theorem Robert Axelrod Duncan Black - Responsible for unearthing the work of many early political scientists, including Charles Dodgson Jean-Charles de Borda - 18th century mathematician... A form of government is a colloquial term that refers to the set of political institutions by which a state is organized in order to exert its powers over a political community. ... A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern the people in one or more societies, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ... States in which a single party is constitutionally linked to power are coloured in brown. ... Vladimir Lenin in 1920 Leninism is a political and economic theory which builds upon Marxism; it is a branch of Marxism (and it has been the dominant branch of Marxism in the world since the 1920s). ... In modern usage, a communist party is a political party which promotes communism, the sociopolitical ideology based on Marxism. ... Constitution of the United States, markedly faded as it appears today. ...

In multi-party liberal democracies, the system of government (executive, legislative and judicial) operates independently of any political party, with each party competing for a right to control the system of government for a specific tenure. In communist states, however, state institutions and party institutions depend on each other to function effectively. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals. ...

What separates communist states from other one-party systems is the fact that ruling authorities in a communist state claim to base all their actions on Marxist-Leninist ideology. The state and the Communist Party claim to act in accordance with the wishes of the working class; they claim to have implemented a democratic dictatorship of the proletariat; and they claim to be moving towards the gradual abolition of the state and the implementation of stateless communism. These claims have been strongly disputed by opponents of the historical communist states, including both anti-communists and communists who do not subscribe to Marxism-Leninism. The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... Democracy (literally rule by the people, from the Greek δημοκρατία-demokratia demos, people, and kratos, rule) is a form of government. ... The dictatorship of the proletariat is a term employed by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program that refers to a transition period between capitalist and communist society in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The term refers to a... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. ...

Usage of the term

The term communist state originated in the West during the Cold War. It was invented to describe the form of government adopted by several countries in Eastern Europe and East Asia who followed the political model of the Soviet Union. These countries were ruled by parties which typically used the name "Communist Party of [country]." Since the separation of Party and State became very blurred in those countries, it seemed logical to name them "communist states," by analogy with the Communist parties that ruled them. The term Western World or the West can have multiple meanings depending on its context. ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked salmon):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current national boundaries: Russia (dark orange), other countries of the former USSR (medium... East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. ...

Communist states do not use the term communist state to describe themselves, however. Within Marxist theory, world communism is the final phase of history at which time the state would have withered away; therefore, the notion of a communist state is an oxymoron. Current states are either in the capitalist or socialist phase of history, and the role of the Communist Party (i.e., the vanguard party) is to pull a nation toward the communist phase of history. Marxism refers to the philosophy and social theory based on Karl Marxs work on one hand, and to the political practice based on Marxist theory on the other hand (namely, parts of the First International during Marxs time, communist parties and later states). ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production. ... Look up Oxymoron in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This box:      Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are mostly privately [1] owned and operated for profit and in which distribution, production and pricing of goods and services are determined in a largely free market. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ... A vanguard party is a political party or grassroot organization at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. ...

Not every country ruled by a Communist party is a communist state. As noted above, the term communist state has been created and used by Western political scientists to refer to a specific type of one-party state. There have been instances where Communist parties won elections and governed in the context of multi-party democracies, without seeking to establish a one-party state. Examples include the Republic of Moldova and the Indian states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. Such countries do not fall under the definition of communist state.   (IPA: ; ) is a state on the Western Coast of south-western India. ... West Bengal   (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ, Poshchimbôŋgo) is a state in eastern India. ... Tripura   (Bengali: ত্রিপুরা, Hindi: त्रिपुरा) is a state in North East India. ...

Not all Marxists supported the communist states. Since the 1930s, significant numbers of Marxists (including some Marxist-Leninists) have argued that most communist states did not actually adhere to Marxism-Leninism but rather to a perversion of it that was heavily influenced by Stalinism. This critique is based on the view that the communist states were not democratic and did not, therefore, represent the interests of the working class. For example, Trotskyists referred to the Soviet Union as a "degenerated workers' state" and called its satellites "deformed workers states." All Marxists agree that democracy (the rule of the people) is essential to both socialism and communism, but they disagree on the particular form that this democracy should take. The 1930s (years from 1930-1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... Joseph Stalin. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... In Trotskyist political theory the term degenerated workers state has been used since the 1930s to describe the state of the Soviet Union after Stalins consolidation of power in or about 1924. ... In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers states are states where capitalism has been overthrown through social revolution and the property forms have changed into a collectivized planned economy, but where the working class has never held political power (as it did in Russia shortly after the Russian Revolution). ...

Relations between State and Party

All communist states are based on the system of government that was developed in the Soviet Union during its first decade of existence. The General Secretary of the Communist Party was the de facto leader of the government, even when he did not hold a state office like president or prime minister. Instead, such state offices were usually held by party members answerable to or controlled by the general secretary. They were given these offices as a reward for their long years of service to the party. On other occasions, having governed as general secretary, the party leader might assume a state office in addition. For example, Mikhail Gorbachev initially did not hold the presidency of the Soviet Union, that office being given as an honor to a former Soviet foreign minister. However, Gorbachev ultimately chose to assume the presidency, running the party and the official state institutions simultaneously. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (First Secretary in 1953-1966) was the title synonymous with leader of the Soviet Union after Vladimir Lenins death in 1924. ... Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (1861-1865) The majority of this article is about heads of states. ... A prime minister is the most senior minister of a cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov ( , IPA: , commonly written as Mikhail Gorbachev; born March 2, 1931) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until its collapse in 1991. ...

The degree of this party-state relationship fluctuates both within a state and between different Communist states. In the contemporary People's Republic of China, for example, a degree of separation has developed between state and party, while a number of very small rival parties have appeared on the fringe. Nevertheless, the degree of Communist Party control over state institutions, and the ability of party figures outside state offices to influence the functioning of the state, is far more extensive than in any multiparty system.

The constitutions of communist states usually provided for democratic elections and the rule of law. However, they usually also provided a privileged role to the Communist Party, for instance requiring that all candidates for state office be approved by the party. Since the party had the authority to determine who would be able to run for office, it had in effect the power to appoint people to all state offices. As a result, one's standing within the party became more important than one's standing within the state hierarchy. A powerful member of the Communist Party could appoint himself, or anyone else, to the office of his choice. The rule of law is the principle that governmental authority is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. ...

List of current communist states

A map showing the current Communist states.

The following countries are one-party states in which the ruling party declares allegiance to Marxism-Leninism and in which the institutions of the party and of the state have become intertwined; hence they fall under the definition of communist states. However, they are not the only countries in the world that currently have Communist governments. There are some multi-party democracies, such as the Republic of Moldova, where Communist parties have won democratic elections and currently form the government. Such states are not considered communist states because the institutions of the party and of the state are not embedded in each other. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1357x628, 96 KB)(Ricky Chow, self-made) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1357x628, 96 KB)(Ricky Chow, self-made) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...

With the above disclaimer, current communist states and their ruling parties are:

• People's Republic of China (since 1949); Communist Party of China
• Republic of Cuba (Cuban Revolution in 1959, socialist state declared in 1961); Communist Party of Cuba
• Lao People's Democratic Republic (since 1975); Lao People's Revolutionary Party
• Democratic People's Republic of Korea (since 1948); Korean Workers' Party
• Socialist Republic of Vietnam (since 1976); Communist Party of Vietnam

While these countries share a similar system of government, they have adopted very different economic policies over the past 15 years. Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... The Communist Party of China (CPC) (official name, though almost universally known in English as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)) (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng) is the ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China, a position guaranteed by the countrys... The Cuban Revolution refers to the revolutionary war in Cuba culminating in the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista’s government on January 1, 1959 by the 26th of July Movement and other revolutionary elements in the country. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... The Communist Party of Cuba (Spanish: Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is currently the only political party permitted to assemble or engage in any political activity in Cuba. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (Laotian: Phak Pasason Pativat Lao) is the Communist Party of Laos. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The Workers Party of Korea (WPK) is the ruling party of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The Communist Party of Vietnam (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam) is the currently ruling, as well as the only legal political party in Vietnam. ...

Moreover, during the Cold War era, various countries, especially in Africa, copied superficial aspects of the Soviet dominant-party system without necessarily sharing the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the Communist parties. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is often considered a Communist state by observers, although it no longer espouses Marxist-Leninsm; instead, it officially describes itself as a socialist republic governed according to the ideology of Juche. Manse Manse! Kim Jong Il! The Juche Idea (also Juche Sasang or Chuche; pronounced // in Korean, approximately joo-cheh) is the official state ideology of North Korea and the political system based on it. ...

See also: List of communist parties There are, at present, a number of communist parties active in various countries across the world, and a number who used to be active. ...

See also

• Criticisms of communist regimes
• Constitutional Monarchy
• Popular Monarchy
• Republic
• Federal Republic
• Confederation