Communism
Collective control of the production and distribution of resources, without class and without the state โ an idea that has outlived every attempt to do so. So far, in theory, not in practice.
How We Say It
komยทyษยทnizยทษm
Where It Comes From
From Latin communis โ common, shared. The modern political sense crystallized with Marx and Engels' Communist Manifesto in 1848. Marx distinguished communism from socialism as a later, stateless stage after the proletariat had abolished class.
How It's Been Used
In Cold War American usage, expanded to cover any state-managed economy or left politics โ a Red Scare deployment that conflated Soviet bureaucracy with Marx's stateless ideal. China, Vietnam, and Cuba still use 'communist' as the party name despite market economies. The gap between the word's theoretical meaning and any historical regime that claimed it is one of the persistent disputes of political theory.